Roy Nance Obituary

Roy A. Nance, age 91 of La Vergne, TN died April 22, 2022.  He was born April 9, 1931, in Allentown, PA.  His parents were the late James Emmett Nance, Jr. of the Fosterville-Bell Buckle, TN area and the late Hilda Lorene (Baker) Nance of Nashville.  He was preceded in death by sisters Lorene Nance Lockwood and Carolyn Nance Marx.  He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Billye Jane Fox Nance; daughter Karen Nance Durham of La Vergne, TN; son, Mark Todd Nance of La Vergne; grandson, Steven Durham, and wife Tabitha with two great granddaughters, Lois, and Leah Durham of Nashville; and brother, James and wife Jan Nance of Stamping Ground, KY.

Mr. Nance was a member of the Kingwood Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, TN.  After his retirement he did mission work for Churches of Christ in Chelyabinsk, Western Siberia, Russia and Venezuela and Bogota, Columbia. He also served as an elder in the Church of Christ in Pittsburgh, PA for many years.

Mr. Nance was reared in the Fosterville/Bell Buckle, TN area.  He did his college-prep studies at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN, graduating in 1949.  He received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (C0-0P) Degree from Georgia Tech 1954 as well as an ROTC commission as a Lieutenant in the US Army Ordnance Corps. After his military service he did post-graduate studies in electronics, math, and nuclear physics at the University of TN. His engineering career involved research and development of inspection methods.  He was a pioneer in the investigation of electromagnetic testing methods (At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)). Following his research at the Oak Ridge Mr. Nance went out into commercial industry (Instruments Division, The Budd Co., Phoenixville, PA) where he was Manager of Non Destructive Testing (NDT) Engineering. There he supervised the design of inspection equipment, applying the principles he had learned as a research scientist at ORNL. Mr. Nance was a member of the American Society for Nondestructive (ASNT) and a licensed “Quality engineer in the State of California”.

For the last 27 years of his engineering career, he serviced the Naval Nuclear Propulsion, Program (NNRP) at the Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in Pittsburgh, PA where he managed a group of engineers developing new and better tests to guarantee the integrity of shipboard nuclear reactor components. He also directed the program that qualified and certified the lead inspectors for reactor component weld inspections on all Navy sub-tenders and at commercial Navy suppliers.

In addition to his regular job, supporting the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, Mr. Nance found time to develop the curriculum for an Associate Degree in NTD for the Allegheny Co. Community College, Pittsburgh and taught a portion of it (night school) for several years. He also lectured on NDT principles at Temple University.

Significant Accomplishments and Recognitions:

1. Mr. Nance considers his most significant accomplishment to be the development of an NDT method to assure the integrity of the Apollo Command Module Heat Shield that protected the Astronauts from the heat of re-entry into the atmosphere on their return from the moon.
2. Numerous Papers, Presentations and Patents in the field of NDT.
3. Election as a “Fellow” in his professional society, The American Society for Non Destructive Testing, in 1976 for significant and important contributions to the field of NDT.
4. Listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in the East, 1979-80 edition.
5. Presented with the George Westinghouse Innovation Award for Development in 1989.
6. Selection for inclusion in the first edition of Who’s Who in Science and Engineering in 1992.
7. Recognized as a Notable Alumnus by The Webb School in 2019.
8. Selected for inclusion in the 2021 issue of Who’s Who in America. In addition, he was awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award achieved by less than 5% of those selected for the 2021 Edition of Who’s Who in America.
9. The opportunity to serve the Lord by sharing (with my wife Billye) the Gospel of Christ with learners in so many foreign nations (Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia) and many churches of Christ in the USA over the years.

A Celebration of Life will be held 4:00 PM Saturday, May 14, 2022, at Kingwood Church of Christ with Richard Lyles, Chuck Mullins, Terry Lafferty, Jimmy Pinzon, Jeff Brown, and Doug Hutchens participating in the service. Visitation with the family will be one hour prior to the service.

An online guestbook for the Nance family is available at www.woodfinchapel.com.

Woodfin Memorial Chapel. (615) 893-5151.