[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 150 (Tuesday, August 24, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING LEON J. ARP

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. H. MORGAN GRIFFITH

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 24, 2021

  Mr. GRIFFITH. Madam Speaker, I rise in honor of Leon J. Arp of 
Blacksburg, Virginia, who passed away on July 23, 2021, at the age of 
91. Mr. Arp was a veteran and businessman who greatly contributed to 
the Blacksburg community.
  Mr. Arp was born in Norway, Iowa on June 30, 1930, to Hugo and Leova 
Arp. After graduating from Walford High School in 1948, he spent four 
years in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, serving in air 
reconnaissance. He married his wife, Kathleen Schulte, in 1955.
  He went on to earn his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. Mr. Arp 
later moved to Virginia to serve as a professor emeritus of Mechanical 
Engineering at Virginia Tech Blacksburg where he taught for 25 years. 
In his time there he earned various distinctions and honors for his 
teaching and research.
  Mr. Arp is best known for developing the Arp Respirator in the late 
1960s. This design was created to aid infants facing respiratory 
distress syndrome--at the time the leading cause of infant death in the 
first week of life. This device is responsible for saving hundreds of 
infants' lives.
  A 1970 Life Magazine profiled this life-saving tool. The article 
notes that Mr. Arp designed a respirator that could handle the delicacy 
of premature infants after nearly losing one of his own children to 
respiratory syndrome. This machine attended an infant's gasp for breath 
more sensitively than any device in existence at the time. Mr. Arp had 
continual innovation throughout his career and retained more than 25 
patents.
  Mr. Arp was preceded in death by his son, William. He is survived by 
his wife of 66 years, Kathleen; his children, Nicholas, John, and 
Joseph; and eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. I would 
like to extend to them my condolences.

                          ____________________