Westinghouse engineer worked on first nuclear submarine

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ann Hayes recalls sitting down with her father, mother and 12 siblings at family dinners, and always at 6 p.m. on the dot. “Not 6:01, not 6:02,” she said. “It had to be 6 o’clock.”

That’s because her father, Art Bonneau, was a stickler for details, “an engineer through and through,” said Ms. Hayes of Lebanon, Pa.

“If you were late to dinner you were relegated to starvation corner,” she said, laughing. “You got what was left over and you had to do the dishes.”

Mr. Bonneau, who worked as a nuclear engineer at Westinghouse for 40 years, balanced his art of exactitude with equal parts gusto.

During those family meals, Mr. Bonneau had a habit of getting up from the table to draw a diagram on the kitchen chalkboard to further augment a story, Ms. Hayes said. So, whether it was for the food or for the storytelling, no one missed dinner.

On Saturday, Mr. Bonneau died of natural causes. He was 85.

Mr. Bonneau graduated from Purdue University with a degree in electrical engineering, but after college, he entered the Air Force, serving in Washington, Montana and Alaska as a navigator.

In 1952, he married his high school sweetheart, Ella “Babe” Cuprak.

Despite holding a degree in electrical engineering, Mr. Bonneau began working as a nuclear engineer for Westinghouse in 1955, when the field was still in its infancy. Mr. Bonneau helped work on the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, and the first nuclear aircraft carrier, the Enterprise.

One of his sons, Pete Bonneau of Bethel Park, said his father worked with Adm. Hyman G. Rickover of the U.S. Navy, widely known for his development of naval nuclear propulsion. Pete Bonneau said his father was one of a few people the admiral could stand to work beside.

“Those are the things about my dad that you won’t read in a history book because he was behind the scenes,” Pete Bonneau said.

On the books, Mr. Bonneau holds about 10 patents, Ms. Hayes said. One such patent for a nuclear dryer allowed workers to wash radioactive clothing, rather than toss them into a landfill. “You only had to get rid of the radioactive lint,” she said.

The family moved from Hammond, Ind., to Pittsburgh in 1970. There, Mr. Bonneau continued working for Westinghouse until his retirement. He kept up with his children’s birthdays on a spreadsheet and picked up playing bridge.

When his wife died 16 years ago, he began a relationship with his longtime bridge partner Mary Lou D’Altorio of Upper St. Clair. Together, the two have traveled to all seven continents, visiting disparate destinations such as Antarctica and Cambodia. “We shared a lot of this world together,” Ms. D’Altorio said.

Together, they rode a hot air balloon, went on a safari in Africa and rode an 80-person icebreaker ship through Antarctica. Mr. Bonneau even ate a tarantula on one excursion.

“He was passionate about whatever he did,” Ms. Hayes said. “Whether that was having a large family, sailing or traveling, he did it to the nth degree.”

Mr. Bonneau is also survived by his other 11 children: Kathy Marcus of Jefferson Hills; Art Bonneau Jr. of Montville, Conn.; Paul Bonneau of Shepherdstown, W.Va.; Bill Bonneau of Sparks, Md.; Jeanne Van Buren of High Point, N.C.; Andy Bonneau of Baldwin; Mary Dolan of Venetia; Joseph Bonneau of Niles, Ohio; Barb Chistiana of Cary, N.C.; Chris Bonneau of Harrisburg and Dave Bonneau of Baldwin. He is also survived by 36 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and his sister, LaVergne Crooks of Ocala, Fla.

His Mass of Christian Burial was held Tuesday at St. Louise de Marillac Church in Upper St. Clair. He is buried in Queen of Heaven Cemetery.