Donald A. McSparron

Donald A. McSparron, 68, of Frederick, Maryland passed away on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at his home.

Born November 2, 1938 in Gary, Indiana, he was the son of the late David and Elsa McSparron. He attended Washington University in St. Louis from 1956-1960, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics.

Most of Don's working career was at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly known as National Bureau of Standards) where he was both a national and internationally known scientist for maintaining programs in Photometry and Color.

In addition, Don worked on programs for NASA to improve spacecraft optical sensor performance, USDA on effects of UV on crops and many other government agencies.

Before he retired in the early 1990's, he was head of the Photometry and Radiometric Calibrations Group, where he helped lead an effort responsible for the redefinition of the fundamental photometric quantity, the lumen.

He was a member of the Optical Society of America, ASTM, LTEC and published many papers on his work in refereed publications.

Don was a keen student of geography and history, and was quite knowledgeable about World War II.

He augmented his knowledge with extensive travels with long-time friends Jerome Pearson and Jack Flippo. During the 1960s to the 1980s, they made many trips by automobile from his home in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

They drove the Alaska Highway when it was 1500 miles of gravel road each way, drove to the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, Mexico City and Acapulco in 1963, flew to Hawaii in 1965, drove across Venezuela in a Volkswagen Beatle in 1968, and in 1986 traveled to New Zealand and Australia.

In the 1990s Don started taking ocean cruises: a Western Caribbean cruise in 1998, Alaska in 2001, the Mediterranean from Venice to Barcelona in 2002, and the Panama Canal in 2003. His last cruise was on a World War II Liberty ship out of Baltimore into the Chesapeake Bay in 2005.

Don was also very interested in astrometry; he traveled to Mazatlan, Mexico to observe and study the 1991 total solar eclipse, repeated this exercise off Aruba in 1998, and again in 1999 by traveling across Europe to see the total solar eclipse from Salzburg, Austria.

He also saw Halley's Comet from Australia in 1986.

Don was a life member of the Northern VA Bridge Association and an associate member of Wolf Trap for the performing arts.

Visitation: See above information.

Services: A memorial service will be held at the Stauffer Funeral Home, 1621 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, Maryland on November 10, 2007 at 2:00pm with Rev. Tim May officiating.