Engineer Tasked to Apollo Missions in Florida, Nuclear Power Plants

Lawrence J. "Larry" Perez Jr., 72, an engineer who became manager of the hydrology and geology department of NUS Corp., a company involved in nuclear power plant engineering, died June 20 at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh. He had melanoma and multiple sclerosis.

Mr. Perez worked for the U.S. Public Health Service, mostly helping install water supply systems on Indian reservations, before settling in the Washington area in the early 1970s. About that time, he joined the Nuclear Utility Services Corp., which became known as NUS Corp. and was acquired in 1980 by the government contractor Halliburton.

At NUS, he was a safety officer assigned to Cape Kennedy in Florida for the Apollo lunar missions and also did nuclear engineering work at power plants. He retired in 1986.

Mr. Perez was born in Staten Island, N.Y., and raised in State College, Pa. His father became a dean of Pennsylvania State University's engineering department.

The younger Perez was a 1959 civil engineering graduate of Penn State, where he specialized in sanitary engineering, and received a master's degree from Michigan State University, where he studied environmental and nuclear engineering.

In 1999, he moved from Potomac to Swanton in Garrett County in Western Maryland. He played trombone in concert and Dixieland bands and was a past commodore of the Deep Creek Yacht Club at Turkey Neck in Swanton. His hobbies included playing bridge and Sudoku puzzles.

His marriage to Maryln King Perez ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Carole Calli Perez of Swanton; two sons from his first marriage, Douglas Perez of Damascus and Scott Perez of Rockville; a stepdaughter he adopted, Lisa Perez Dossey of San Bruno, Calif.; three stepsons, Heinz von Eckartsberg of Dublin, Ohio, Eric von Eckartsberg of Arlington County and Christian von Eckartsberg of San Francisco; a brother; and nine grandchildren.