Sidney Emery Speed

Sidney Emery Speed of Morgantown, West Virginia, died unexpectedly August 25th 2012 at his home. Sid was born in Massachusetts on April 2, 1926, a son of the late Harold Clifton and Elizabeth Additon Speed of Wiscasset, Maine. He is survived by his wife Suzanne Martin Speed. Also surviving are his daughter Julie Elizabeth Speed and her husband Francis Christina, of Marfa, Texas, and his son David Emery Speed, his wife Laura Pierson and their two children, Laurel Pierson Speed and Forest Pierson Speed of Newtown, Connecticut. His two brothers, Harold Clifton Speed and Lincoln Judson Speed and a sister Cynthia Speed Lang predeceased him. Sidney, a former Marine, and his wife Sue met at the naval base in Key West, Florida, at the beginning of World War II. They corresponded throughout the war and married on September 2nd, 1947. Sid often referred to Sue as "my bride", and his death occurred nine days prior to their 65th wedding anniversary. Sidney became a metallurgical engineer, earning his bachelor of science degree at the University of Houston. Not long after receiving his degree, he was recalled back into the Marines during the Korean Conflict. Following his discharge, Sid began a long career as a metallurgist and held two U.S. patents; one for foamed aluminum and another held with his son-in-law Francis Christina for an easel for handicapped artists. Crafting scale ship models from scratch was a skill passed down in the Speed family for generations and upon his retirement from Shiedow Bronze in Kingwood, West Virginia around 1988, he began pursuing this longtime beloved hobby full time. His brother-in-law David Edwin Martin is planning a picture book on Sidney's many ship models, which include a Russian battleship [the Potemkin, in silver], an American Cup racer, a sea going tug, a Chinese junk built specially for his wife, Sue, and even a ship in a bottle. Sid was an ardent sailor and he and his wife Sue raced one-design sailboats for many years, racing out of harbors up and down the East Coast, and the Gulf Coast out of Houston, Texas. For years they chartered bare-boats for vacations, mainly along the coast of Maine. There will be no public service - his ashes will be spread on the water by family.