Arthur Fentin

Arthur Fentin, 99, died Nov. 20 at his home in Warminster, Pa.

Born and raised in the Boston suburb of Roxbury, Arthur graduated from Boston Latin High School in June 1942 and one month later enlisted in the U.S. Army. During testing, the Army discovered that he was one of three out of about 1 million in the Army who could detect camouflaged regiments from 20,000 feet. During the next two years he flew from Newfoundland on missions to detect the regiments in war-torn Europe. At the same time, he was training aerial photographers at an Army base in Chicago.

Photography was his passion from an early age. After earning a B.A. in chemistry and an M.A. in chemistry and physics from Boston University, he was recruited to work in the university's optical research laboratory, where he helped to develop the pendulum camera used in U-2 planes flying reconnaissance missions. With the camera he took the aerial photographs of New York City that were published in the Aug. 1, 1949, issue of Life magazine.

In 1948 he married Ruth Swirsky of Malden, MA, who predeceased him in 2004. The couple loved to travel and visited every continent and nearly every country in the world.

Arthur is survived by three children: Carolyn (Sheldon) Per of Pennsylvania; Laura (Mark) Duvall of Washington, D.C.; and Richard (Beth) Fentin of Florida. He was blessed to have watched his nine grandchildren become successful, caring adults and to have spent considerable time with his 20 great-grandchildren. He was also predeceased by his brother, Leon, who died in 2008.

Arthur enjoyed a 25-year career with duPont, much of it as manager of the company's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, NJ.

He devoted 43 years to B'nai Brith Senior Housing in Wilmington, DE, and Deerfield Beach, FL. One of the buildings in Deerfield Beach was named in his honor earlier this year.