Rodney Delano Bagley

Rod was the oldest of 4 children. He grew up near apricot and cherry orchards and recalls picking cherries, with stems, for 3 cents/pound. He worked summer jobs thinning sugar beets, hauling grain near the Golden Spike Monument, working in a tomato canning factory, doing construction work, and working for the City of Ogden. He spent much of his free time in his early years fly fishing, hunting with guns and bow and arrows, and tinkering with old cars.

Rod attended Ogden High School where he was an officer in ROTC and a member of the judo team. He received the Browning Scholarship to the University of Utah in Mining Engineering where he was awarded the top honor in ROTC as a freshman for having the top grade point average. He was a member of The Utah Military Society, Pershing Rifles, and the drill team. At age 18, he joined the Army Reserves and was a reservist for eight years.

Rod loved working two summers for the Forest Service surveying new roads and relocating old roads in the mountains of Idaho and Utah. He loved the combination of camaraderie, fishing, and civil engineering.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in Geological Engineering, he continued graduate studies at University of Utah earning a PhD in Ceramic Engineering and Metallurgy in 1964.

Rod met Alice Grover in 1959. They were married in 1960 in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple and celebrated 62 years of marriage last September.

In 1963, Rod accepted a job at Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated) in upstate NY as a researcher, where he worked until his retirement in 1994. Rod invented the method for making the cellular ceramic heart of the catalytic converter used in cars. His colleagues Ron Lewis and Irv Lachman invented the ceramic substrate. His process is still used 50 years later and has reduced pollution from emissions and lead (because it led to removing lead from gas) going far to fulfill the aim of the Clean Air Act. He is a named inventor on 17 patents and received many awards: The American Society for Metals Engineering Materials Achievement Award, the National Medal of Technology from then-President Bush, the Mountain Man of the Year award (University of Utah), the International Ceramics Prize, and the Samuel Geijsbeek Award (American Ceramic Society), and was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame.

Rod was highly supportive of his daughters’ education and was proud that they all earned college degrees and most earned advanced degrees. Rod instilled a strong work ethic, overseeing a large vegetable garden including his prized asparagus patch. Favorite family memories include watching slideshows (using actual slides!), listening to Rod’s stories, and taking family trips around the country in a crowded station wagon. The family still enjoys gathering as often as possible for holidays, birthdays, and yard/home workdays.

Rod will be remembered for his exacting workmanship. In the early 1970s, when his growing family needed a new home, he painstakingly drew up the house plans and had an exterior shell built. With help from his family, he finished the house, including the kitchen and dining room cabinets and built-in cabinets in all the bedrooms. He was particularly proud of pouring a 100-foot cement driveway with Alice and the girls, using a cement mixer, wheelbarrow, and grit. Alice and Rod raised their family in the Corning, NY area. They moved to Windsor, VT in 2006 to live closer to their daughters.

Rod was known for generosity with his construction skills. In the 1970s, some friends’ dairy barn burned down, and Rod oversaw the rebuilding of the barn. He and other volunteers spent six months over a freezing New York winter, working evenings and Saturdays to complete everything from laying cinder blocks to installing electrical, plumbing, siding, and roofing. The completion of the barn was celebrated with a barn dance and dish to pass supper, Rod’s type of entertainment. Throughout his life, he performed countless acts of service for family, friends, and strangers.

Rod embraced a wide range of intense interests, including fly tying, cycling, photography, mushroom foraging, photography, and storytelling. In his 40s, Rod discovered a passion that he would pursue for the rest of his life: making violins, violas, cellos, and bows. He and Alice spent many summers at University of New Hampshire, Oberlin College, and in Tucson, AZ, attending violin and bow-making master classes. Rod loved listening to music and especially enjoyed hearing his daughters and grandchildren play instruments he had made.

Rod was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served a two-year church mission to Alabama and Florida. He said if you haven’t listened to the Mormon missionaries, you should invite them in! Rod loved studying the gospel and was a beloved speaker and Sunday School teacher for teenagers and adults.

The family wishes to thank the staff at the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative & Hospice Care and Bayada Hospice Care for their excellent and kind care.

Services will be held Saturday May 13, 2023, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ascutney, Vermont with visiting hours at 9 am and a funeral at 10 am (Eastern Time). Knight Funeral Home of Windsor, VT is entrusted with services. For those who are unable to attend, the service will be livestreamed, link available through his obituary on www.knightfuneralhomes.com