Robert 'Thom' Frost | Nuclear physicist, 84

Robert T. "Thom" Frost, 84, of Narberth, a nuclear physicist, died of a stroke Sunday at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Dr. Frost grew up in Towson, Md. During World War II, he was a radio operator in the merchant marine.

After the war, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees and a doctorate in physics from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Frost was then with General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y., until 1961, when he joined GE's aerospace division in Valley Forge. He was responsible for 22 scientific publications, including an account of the experiment he developed to melt metal aboard a space shuttle.

In 1986, he retired to Accomac, Va. He and his wife, Carol Reisinger Frost, moved to Narberth to be closer to their children in 2006.

The couple had met at a swim club in Towson and married in 1948. They courted in a war-surplus canoe that is now at their farm near Elk Mountain, Pa. Mr. Frost purchased the farm in 1967 as a family ski retreat. Until he was 80, he lifted hay bales and shoveled coal for the farm furnace, his family said.

Mr. Frost was a ham radio operator and an "irrepressible scholar" who founded a science and philosophy seminar in Virginia. He and his son, Tom, were planning a trip to Egypt, a country he had studied extensively since going there during World War II.

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Frost is survived by daughters Kathleen Springsteed, Susan Todhunter, Christine Red and Amy Baumgarten and seven grandchildren.

A Memorial Mass was said yesterday at St. Margaret's Church, 210 N. Narberth Ave., Narberth. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.