Robert E. McCoskey
Robert E. McCoskey, 79, a physicist who helped design equipment for the Army, died Jan. 16, 2006 at Montgomery General Hospital of an acute infection. He lived in Rockville.
Mr. McCoskey spent 27 years with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, where he specialized in analyzing the electromagnetic pulse effects of nuclear weapons. He was chief of the electromagnetic pulse lab at the Harry Diamond Laboratories, part of the Adelphi research center. When he retired in 1981, he was chief of the components and materials laboratory of the Army Electronics Research and Development Command.
From 1982 to 1984, he was senior scientist at Kaman Sciences Corp. in Alexandria. He was later a senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton in Bethesda until his retirement in 1990.
Mr. McCoskey was born in Kirksville, Mo., and moved to Washington in his teens. He graduated from Eastern High School in 1944. He received a bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1950 and a master's degree in physics from GWU in 1955.
As an employee of what was then the National Bureau of Standards from 1948 to 1953, Mr. McCoskey analyzed the effects of nuclear explosions at the military's Nevada Test Site.
He was a deacon at Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kensington. He was a member of Manor Country Club in Rockville and the Maryland Senior Golf Association.
Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Pauline McCoskey of Rockville; two sons, William McCoskey of Taneytown, Md., and John McCoskey of Castle Rock, Colo.; and two grandchildren.