Submitted by: Dan Rich

South Bend Tribune 8/29/2000

James J. Carberry

Sept. 13, 1925 - Aug. 27, 2000

James John Carberry, 74, Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame, passed away during his sleep in his home on Sunday, Aug. 27, following a brief illness.

Carberry, a renowned chemical engineering scientist, provided both Notre Dame and the engineering communities with vision and foresight for more than forty years. He will be dearly missed by his family and friends.

Professor Carberry was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 13, 1925, and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School. Following his service in the Navy from 1944-1946 aboard the U.S.S. Denver, Carberry attended the University of Notre Dame and received a BS (1950) and an MS (1951) in chemical engineering. While an undergraduate he developed a devotion to Italian opera; football, as the quarterback on the intramural football program; classical music, as a member of the Glee Club; the Humanities, as he minored in English literature; and St. Thomas Aquinas, as introduced by a then- professor of theology, Father Theodore Hesburgh. Professor Carberry received his Ph.D. in fluid dynamics at Yale University in 1957. While at Yale he was received into the Third Order of St. Dominic. Carberry joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 1961 as an assistant professor. For more than twenty years he coached intramural football at the University of Notre Dame.

In 1964 Dr. Carberry conceived and developed the "swirling basket catalytic reactor," known as the "Carberry Reactor." He was a National Science Foundation Senior Fellow at Cambridge University from 1965 to 1966. In 1968 he received the Yale Engineering Association Award for Advancement of Pure and Applied Science and, in 1974, he was named Hays-Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Rome. In 1972 he co-founded the U.S. - Soviet Working Committee on Catalysis following the bilateral agreement regarding the exchange of purely scientific information. A recipient in 1976 of the R. H. Wilhelm Award in Chemical Reaction Engineering (AIChE), he was named Sir Winston Churchill Fellow, and Richard K. Mellon Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge University (U.K.) in 1979, and again, Churchill Fellow in 1982. Professor Carberry in 1979 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (London). He was also a member of the advisory council of the Chemical Engineering Department at Princeton University (1980-90), in 1986 a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and, in 1987, a Visiting and then Life Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University (U.K.). In 1988 he was a recipient of the first Autoclave Engineers' Award. During 1991 he was Visiting Professor & Fellow at Cambridge University (U.K.). Carberry was Visiting Fellow in 1996 and 1997 at Princeton University. He was also a Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Naples, Italy; University of Rome, Italy; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; and most recently at Columbia University, N.Y.

He received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers William H. Walker Award (1989) for excellence in contributions in chemical engineering literature. The American Chemical Society named Carberry as its 1993 recipient of the E.V. Murphree Award for his pioneering research in catalysis and reaction engineering.

Author of the text Chemical and Catalytic Reaction Engineering (McGraw-Hill, 1976), which has been published worldwide, and former co-editor of Catalysis Reviews- Science and Engineer-ing, he published more than 120 technical papers. In 1996 Carberry was made an Honorary Alumnus of Princeton University, Class of `55. He was a member of ACS, AIChE, Sigma Xi, and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. In 1993 Carberry was elected to the Executive Board of the Yale Science and Engineering Association and, in 1989, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Professor Carberry is survived by his daughter, Alison Carberry Kiene of Rockford, Ill.; his twin grandsons, Damian and Nicholas Kiene; sisters, Jeanne Carberry Brady of Hyde Park, N.Y., and Alice Romanelli of Huntington, N.Y.; five nieces and nephews; and by 13 great-nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Margaret Bruggner Carberry in 1994; a daughter, Maura O'Malley Carberry on Jan. 1, 2000; and by his uncle, John Joseph Cardinal Carberry, former Archbishop of St. Louis, in 1998.

Visitation will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. today, Aug. 29, in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, University of Notre Dame.

The funeral Mass will be at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, University of Notre Dame. Interment will follow at Cedar Grove Cemetery on the Notre Dame campus.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of St. Joseph County, 111 Sunnybrook Court, South Bend, IN 46637-3437.

The Hickey Funeral Homes, South Bend, is in charge of arrangements.