Adolph P. "Dolph" Schlies

Adolph P. "Dolph" Schlies was the son of Frank Schleis and Anna Vondracek. He married Roberta Hake in 1951. Dolph, age 94, a resident of Harvest, Alabama passed away at home on Friday, August 28. He was born in Francis Creek, Wisconsin, where he lived and worked on a farm. He learned at a very young age how to handle a team of horses and later drive a tractor to till the land his father owned. Other duties included as milking cows before 6:00 AM and bailing hay. Dolph's mother passed away while he was in High School and his father passed when he was in the Army Air Corps. Dolph proudly served during World War II in the 6th Army Air Force until he was honorably discharged in 1946. He lived in Detroit and Chicago after the war, working for the railroad where he learned about materials and the transport of those materials. Dolph also was a skilled jeweler. In 1951, he married Roberta Hake, who was employed as medical secretary at the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Albuquerque until 1959,where she worked with the first astronauts. Roberta's interests were her home and family, working toward good government at the grassroots and county level, and humanitarian projects. On October 6, 1967, Dolph, while working for the United States Atomic Energy Commission in Los Alamos, New Mexico invented and patented a container for radioactive fuel elements. As a plastic engineer and project manager, he developed materials for his invention that provided a light weight, easily assembled cask or container for nuclear reactor fuel elements which encloses each individual element with a neutron absorber minimizing friction and to thus effect easy removal of the fuel elements.He became active in local politics after moving to Los Lunas, New Mexico, in 1968. Dolph was a member of the Valencia County Republican Party Central Committee for a number of years and was its secretary in 1976 to 1977; the Valencia County Board of Registration from 1975 to 1979; active member of the County Executive Committee; a member-at-large of the B.P.O. In June of 1973, Dolph and Roberta started the Valencia County Milk and Emergency Fund Inc. For most of the years of its existence, he acted as president helping hundreds of needy families and children.He leaves behind his daughter Rose Marie and his son Wolfgang and an inspiration of the love of God, Family and Country.Services will be held at the St. Joseph Catholic Church, beginning with a public viewing on Wednesday September 2, at 10:00-11:30 a.m.; with a rosary to be recited at 10:30 a.m. Mass will begin at 11:30 a.m. - 12:30p.m. with a luncheon after.There will be a funeral mass at San Clemente Catholic Church at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, September 5, 2015. Interment will follow at San Clemente Cemetery where he be buried next to the love of his life, his wife of 58 years, Roberta.

Adolph P. "Dolph" Schlies

August 27, 2015