Richard C. Wareham, 80, retired engineer and entrepreneur [SunStove solar cooker; non-profit SunStove Organization]
Hoodude
Jan. 12, 2004
http://www.jsonline.com/news/nobits/jan04/199477.asp
Right now, in places such as South Africa and India and Mexico,
thousands of families are using something called the SunStove to cook
their meals.
And while its inventor, Richard Wareham, is hardly a household name,
his design is making life easier for all kinds of households.
"I would see women carrying stacks of wood on their head for miles to
their cooking huts," Wareham said in a 1995 interview.
"I've seen hundreds of acres deforested in Africa and Central America
because of the need for wood for cooking. I knew if I could provide a
solar cooker that was efficient, reliable and inexpensive, they would
use it."
Later, the retired engineer and entrepreneur turned his attention to
the problem of distilling impure water for safe drinking. His designs
and research are available to all.
"It's a gift to the world," said his son, David Wareham. "The
instructions are free."
Richard C. Wareham, 80, died Friday in hospice care at First
Congregational Church apartments in Brookfield. He was diagnosed with
bone and lung cancer about five months ago. Wareham and his wife, Rita
Wareham, long lived in Wauwatosa.
Richard Wareham grew up on a farm near Peterson, Iowa. After serving
in World War II, he earned an engineering degree from Iowa State
University.
In 1952, he was hired by Louis Allis and moved to Milwaukee. Nine
years later, Wareham began his own business, Special Electric. That
led to other spinoffs, including Special Materials, Special Shipping,
Texas Mooring and other businesses overseas.
Each new business handled a step in manufacturing and delivery.
Special Shipping, for example, handled not only the materials that his
own business needed but also all kinds of other items, said son David.
"Everything from ladies shoes to tin ingots," he said. "It could be
anything people wanted shipped from Africa to the states or Mexico,
worldwide. The business acted as a steamship agent, renting sea
container space."
An affordable solution
The inspiration for his SunStove came in South Africa, where he
frequently traveled for business. In 1989, he began helping a
Milwaukee man develop a solar cooker but came to believe the
$200-plus-per-unit cost was impossibly expensive for most families
living in the Third World.
He designed a simpler, cheaper model that could be mass produced. The
SunStove uses a molded plastic or wood exterior that is insulated and
lined with aluminum printing plates, covered in clear glass or
plastic.
Although Wareham patented the design, it is available free on his Web
site, www.sungravity.com.
"It's basically like a Crock-Pot," said Robert Foster, who knew
Wareham from his involvement with the Southwest Technology Development
Institute at New Mexico State University.
"It's a slow cooker, but it plugs into the sun, so to speak," said
Foster, its international programs manager.
The SunStove can be purchased for $25, including in small monthly
payments stretched over a year.
Wareham also founded the self-supporting, non-profit SunStove
Organization. The Rotary Club has been involved in the effort. Local
plants produce the SunStove in some poor countries.
Sun-kissed water
Wareham next began working on small water distillation projects,
sharing his own research and assisting the New Mexico program and
students in other ways.
"The next war will be fought over water," he told Laurel Walker, the
Journal Sentinel's Waukesha County columnist, in 2001. "Oil is a
financial problem, but water is life and death. . . . If you saw what
I saw. I had friends who drank their urine because it was cleaner than
the water."
His latest design produced twice the distilled water of other small
solar units, his son said. Research is continuing.
"He did things his way, and he got them done," David said. "We always
joked that Dad wouldn't stop until he was six feet under. . . . I know
he's my father, but I'm telling you, he was a very remarkable man."
Survivors include Rita, his wife of 51 years; daughters Laurie Wareham
and Jill Wareham Gruver; sons Steve and David; and grandchildren.