Richard Dempewolff, longtime editor and feature writer for Popular Mechanics Magazine and member of the National Association of Science Writers since 1954, died December 30 in Henryville, PA. He was 83.
Upon graduation from Middlebury College in 1936, he began his journalistic career with the Literary Digest, then worked as an editor/writer for Newsweek, True, Fawcett Men’s Group, and Pic Magazine. After four intervening years in the Navy, including sea duty on the aircraft carrier Midway, he joined Popular Mechanics as Eastern Editor and science feature writer, writing about a broad range of technology with a broad range of datelines.
In 1955, he was invited by Admiral Richard E. Byrd to join his Antarctic expedition for three months with Operation Deepfreeze in preparation for the International Geophysical Year. He returned to Antarctica in 1961 for another Popular Mechanics series and a motion picture.
Dempewolff became editor of Science Digest in 1967, retiring eight years later. He was the author of seven books as well as hundreds of magazine articles.
He is survived by his wife, Rita; a daughter, Judith Ann; two grandchildren; and a brother, Lawrence.
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