Bertrand D. Ash, age 94, of St. Albans, West Virginia, died on May 31, 2018, after a short illness.
He was born in Clarksburg, WV. After attending WV Wesleyan College, he came to the Kanawha Valley in 1942. He was an analytical chemist and worked for the Westvaco Chlorine Products Corp., which was making strategic war chemicals to be used by our armed forces in the invasion of Europe. After the war, he accepted a position with Union Carbide in the Research Department. He was soon promoted to research chemist and worked 38 years in the Technical Center in South Charleston. He was an emeritus member of the American Chemical Society and authored chemical articles for the technical literature. In addition, he was co-inventor for several U. S. patents for chemical processes. He was a charter member of the Charleston chapter of the National Speleological Society. With that organization, he pioneered the systematic exploration, mapping and photographing of numerous caves in West Virginia. A life-long environmentalist, he lectured widely on the destruction caused by strip mining coal and also clear-cutting of our forests. He was a skilled naturalist and took numerous close-up pictures of W.Va. wildflowers, mushrooms and insects. He was well known locally for his beautiful photo slide presentations. He was preceded in death by his wife, Casey Ash, and daughter, Olivia Turner. He is survived by two sons, Robert and William, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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