- Date Of Birth: October 2, 1949
- Date Of Death: October 21, 2022
- State: Connecticut
Francis (Frank) Ors Dudas was born on October 2, 1949, in Bad Grund, Germany, the son of Laszlo and Charlotte (Hansaghy) Dudas. The family immigrated to the United States in 1951. They came through Ellis Island, lived 9 months in Cleveland, Ohio, 3 years in Henderson, Nevada, then moved to Anaconda, Montana. Frank attended Catholic elementary and high school in Anaconda graduating in 1968.
He continued his education at Montana State University, Bozeman and graduated in 1972 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Geology and Botany. He began his career as an assistant mineralogist in Tucson, Arizona, and then as a mineralogist for Kennecott Corporation in Lexington, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1979, he worked on research assistantships in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, and then was an instructor at Dickinson College. This was followed with a predoctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.
He served as assistant professorships teaching Geology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry. He also served as a research associate at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and as a consultant at Tark Geosciences, Billerica, Massachusetts. Beginning in 2000 until his retirement in 2014, he was Manager of the Radiogenic Research Laboratory at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here he was known as a steady manager, a safety officer, a skilled educator and a gifted mineralogist famous for being able to identify obscure minerals.
Throughout his career, he was published in many technical reports and refereed papers. Since his retirement, he continued to perform independent research and wrote a book titled: “Perspectives on the Age of the Earth and Why They Matter”.
The Baha’i Faith was an integral part of Frank’s life and he remained active until his death.
He is survived by his step-daughter, Erica (Stengel) Sawers and her children, his sister in law, Sandra Dudas and her children, and a cousin in Hungary. He was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Laszlo; his sister, Csilla; his first wife of 36 years, Rigel Lisa Lustwerk-Dudas; his wife of 4 years, Susan Rose Stengel.
He passed peacefully at his home in Bridgeport, Connecticut after a 3 year history of colon cancer.
