Marvin and Ruby Wilkening

A joint memorial service for Marvin H. and Ruby Wilkening of Socorro, N.M., will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Zion United Methodist Church near Old Appleton. The Rev. Susan Hoyle will officiate. Burial will be in the church cemetery.

Marvin Wilkening, 88, died Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006.

He was born March 13, 1918, north of Oak Ridge, son of Theodore and Myrtle Wilkening.

Ruby Wilkening, 82, died Friday, June 20, 2003.

She was born July 20, 1920, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of James A. and Edna Barks.

The Wilkenings were married Nov. 14, 1942.

Both were graduates of Southeast Missouri State University and taught physics, mathematics and English at Jackson High School from 1939 to 1942. Marvin then entered graduate school at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

During World War II, Marvin became a member of the Fermi Group and recorded the first self-sustained chain reaction in the first nuclear reactor. He served his country with the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tenn., Hanford, Wash., and Los Alamos, N.M., where he witnessed and recorded the first explosion of an atomic bomb.

Following the war, he completed his Ph.D. at the Illinois Institute of Technology and became professor of physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro in 1948. He was dean of graduate studies when he retired.

The Wilkenings were very active in church and community activities and received numerous awards for their volunteer services.

Survivors include a daughter, Laurel Wilkening of Tucson, Ariz.; a son, Wesley Wilkening of Albuquerque, N.M.; a granddaughter; Marvin's sister, Verna of Arvada, Colo.; and Marvin's brother, Walter of Columbia, Mo.

Ruby was preceded in death by a sister.

Announcement courtesy of Liley Funeral Home in Marble Hill, Mo.