rbgarr
01-19-2008, 08:48 AM
David C. Nutt
of Etna, N.H., died Thursday, January 10, in Hanover, N.H, age 88.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 21, 1919, he was the son of Joseph Randolph Nutt and Elizabeth Hasbrouck Nutt. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Botany in 1941. In 1943 he married Babs Wright and they moved to Etna, N.H. in 1946.
From 1935 until 1940 he accompanied Captain "Bob" Bartlett to Greenland on the schooner Morrissey serving as a seaman, a navigator and a curator for the Smithsonian Museum. Upon graduating from Dartmouth College he served until 1943 as Executive Officer on the schooner USS Bowdoin in Greenland under Captain Donald MacMillan. He then served as Exec. and Commanding Officer on the USS Sumner, a Navy survey ship, and was involved in operations at Ulithi, Guam, Iwo Jima, Leyte, Okinawa, Korea, China, and Bikini. On Mt. Suribachi he dropped into a foxhole and landed alongside his old college roommate, Marine Captain Robert White, "while Hell's kitchen was flying overhead."
After the war he pursued a career in the Arctic. In 1948 he acquired the 100-ft schooner Blue Dolphin, which he based in Boothbay Harbor. She was refitted for Arctic oceanographic research and from 1949 to 1954 surveyed the fjords and estuaries of Labrador. This research resulted in a vital baseline for the thermal and compositional history of subarctic estuaries which contained cold Arctic bottom waters. Nutt and his crews also used dog teams and small boats. He later did research on the Greenland icecap and developed methods to determine the atmospheric conditions at the time the ice was formed.
He was an Officer and later Chairman of the Arctic Institute of North America, was on the Board of Governors of the American Polar Society, the Board of Directors of the New England Grenfell Association, the Board of Directors and President of the Early Sites Foundation, the Board of Directors and President of the Aviation Association of New Hampshire and was an Honorary member of the American Polar Society and earned the Elisha Kent Kane Medal for Arctic Service.
He was a long-time member of the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club and served as Commodore. David also was a Selectman in Hanover, N.H. and served several terms in the New Hampshire State Legislature. He retired from the United States Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain.
He and his wife, Babs, both experienced pilots, owned and operated the Post Mills Airport in Post Mills, Vermont for many years.
of Etna, N.H., died Thursday, January 10, in Hanover, N.H, age 88.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 21, 1919, he was the son of Joseph Randolph Nutt and Elizabeth Hasbrouck Nutt. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Botany in 1941. In 1943 he married Babs Wright and they moved to Etna, N.H. in 1946.
From 1935 until 1940 he accompanied Captain "Bob" Bartlett to Greenland on the schooner Morrissey serving as a seaman, a navigator and a curator for the Smithsonian Museum. Upon graduating from Dartmouth College he served until 1943 as Executive Officer on the schooner USS Bowdoin in Greenland under Captain Donald MacMillan. He then served as Exec. and Commanding Officer on the USS Sumner, a Navy survey ship, and was involved in operations at Ulithi, Guam, Iwo Jima, Leyte, Okinawa, Korea, China, and Bikini. On Mt. Suribachi he dropped into a foxhole and landed alongside his old college roommate, Marine Captain Robert White, "while Hell's kitchen was flying overhead."
After the war he pursued a career in the Arctic. In 1948 he acquired the 100-ft schooner Blue Dolphin, which he based in Boothbay Harbor. She was refitted for Arctic oceanographic research and from 1949 to 1954 surveyed the fjords and estuaries of Labrador. This research resulted in a vital baseline for the thermal and compositional history of subarctic estuaries which contained cold Arctic bottom waters. Nutt and his crews also used dog teams and small boats. He later did research on the Greenland icecap and developed methods to determine the atmospheric conditions at the time the ice was formed.
He was an Officer and later Chairman of the Arctic Institute of North America, was on the Board of Governors of the American Polar Society, the Board of Directors of the New England Grenfell Association, the Board of Directors and President of the Early Sites Foundation, the Board of Directors and President of the Aviation Association of New Hampshire and was an Honorary member of the American Polar Society and earned the Elisha Kent Kane Medal for Arctic Service.
He was a long-time member of the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club and served as Commodore. David also was a Selectman in Hanover, N.H. and served several terms in the New Hampshire State Legislature. He retired from the United States Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain.
He and his wife, Babs, both experienced pilots, owned and operated the Post Mills Airport in Post Mills, Vermont for many years.