Thomas A. (Tad) Dean Jr.

Thomas A. (Tad) Dean Jr., 46, an analytical chemist, died on May 12 in Raleigh, N.C., of an apparent heart attack.

Born in Wilson, N.C., Dean received a B.S. in chemistry from North Carolina State University in 1985. He spent summers working for Virginia Chemicals, in Portsmouth, Va., as a chromatographer before earning a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry at Wayne State University in 1989 under Colin F. Poole. While at Wayne State, he worked as a consultant for Detroit Edison and received a Toyota Research Fellowship and the Boltz Award for excellence in analytical chemistry.

In 1989, Dean returned to Wilson to become manager of the environmental department at Southern Testing & Research Laboratories. He was instrumental in building the company from a small local contract laboratory serving primarily wastewater and agricultural clients into a multifaceted business with international clients in the environmental, food, agricultural residues, and pharmaceutical industries.

In 1994, he became the director of R&D continuing in that position after the acquisition of Southern Testing by Microbac Laboratories in 1999. He also continued to participate in his family's farming operation, T. S. Dean Farms.

Dean published 13 scientific papers in the field of separation science. He was a member of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry and the Association of Analytical Chemists/Federation of Analytical Chemistry & Spectroscopy Societies. He joined ACS in 1985, serving as chairman of the Eastern North Carolina Section in 1997.

He is survived by his wife, Lisa L. (Oehrl) Dean, and a brother, nephew, and niece.