Thomas Edward Botts

Dr. Botts was born in Washington D.C. September 17, 1947. He was born into a military family that moved a number of times before settling in Northridge, California. He was predeceased by both his parents but he is survived by his sister, Carroll Lynn Botts of Albuquerque, NM and his brother, Jim Botts of Lubec, ME. He attended Granada Hills High School graduating with a Major Sequence in Mathematics - College Preparatory course, then received his B.S. in Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. He was a member of the scholastic society Tau Beta Pi, graduating Cum Laude. He also received an M.S. at U.C.L.A. the next year in Materials Science. He was awarded his Ph.D at the University of Nottingham, England 1974. The next two years he was a Post - Doctoral fellow at U.C.L.A. in the Department of Energy and Kinetics in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Afterwards, he accepted a position as an Associate Nuclear Engineer with Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. He moved to Washington D.C. in 1983 joining the Government Contracting Firm, MRJ where he met his wife, Sharon Harshbarger, also a member of the firm. They were married in 1998. Tom was an active sportsman who enjoyed being a runner, a swimmer, and Master Scuba Diving Instructor, and a Yachtsman. Together they traveled extensively both in the USA and abroad. In 2009, Tom founded the government contracting company, 5th Generation Analytics Inc. and was the managing partner until his retirement. In 2015, the couple left the D.C. Metro Area and made their final move into the lively Community at Westminster Canterbury in Richmond, Va. An electronic version of this obituary can be found at VirginiaCremate.com, where comments and condolences can be offered.