Ted Morin, former Thermatool president, dies

Theodore Joseph Morin Jr., of West Dennis, Mass., former president of Thermatool Corp. and former chairman of the board of the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl. (FMA), died Nov. 18 at the age of 82.

After high school graduation, Morin served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1954. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Northeastern University in 1959, a master's degree in physics from the College of William & Mary in 1961, a Certificate of Magnetohydrodynamics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961, and an MBA from the University of Connecticut in 1980.

Morin worked as a physicist from 1959 to 1961 at NASA, Langley Field, Va., and as an engineering research associate at Northeastern from 1961 to 1967. He taught physics and electrical engineering at Northeastern and established the university’s plasma physics facility. He was the author of five patents in magnetic welding and forming, two in ultrasonic soldering, and some 30 articles and publications on related subjects.

Co-inventor of the solid-state hydrodynamic welding process, Morin founded the firm of Industrial Magnetics Inc., which later became Thermo Magnetics and merged with Thermatool Corp. in 1974. He joined Thermatool as a product manager and soon became its president. He also was a member of the International Tube Association, a member of the Steel Tube Institute, and a director of FMA. He served as FMA’s chairman of the board in 2002.

Morin's adventures outside the business world included climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, driving across the country with his family, and blue fishing off Nantucket. He traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and was held uniformly in high esteem as a businessman of high integrity and foresight. He will be remembered for his creativity, his sense of humor, and his fastidiously maintained crew cut.

Morin is survived by his wife, Helen; sons Theodore, Peter, Thomas, John, and Andrew; daughter Elizabeth; and 17 grandchildren.