Obituaries
Anthony Silvidi, 91, Kent State University physics professor
He also played trumpet with Tony's Angels and served on the Portage County Democratic Party executive committee.
Anthony A. Silvidi, who taught physics at for 40 years, helped develop a doctoral program for the university’s physics department, served on the Executive Committee of Portage County Democratic Party and led a band called Tony’s Angels.
The Kent resident, who died April 18 at age 91, became an assistant professor of physics at KSU in 1952. He was made a full professor in 1964, retired in 1982 and continued to teach and do research until 1992.
Silvidi, who conducted research in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and biophysics, published two textbooks, wrote numerous articles for scientific journals and gave presentations at many scientific meetings.
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He received a NATO grant in 1972 to deliver a paper on NMR at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, Italy. In later years, he investigated inborn errors of metabolism in children.
The Steubenville native graduated from Steubenville Catholic Central High School in 1937. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1943 and a master’s degree in physics in 1945 from Ohio University. He earned a doctorate in physics from The Ohio State University in 1949.
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Silvidi headed physics and mathematics at the College of Steubenville and was a research physicist at the Cornell Aeronautical Lab in Buffalo, NY, before joining the faculty at Kent State.
He had served as president of the Christopher Columbus Society of Kent, the Ohio Section of the American Physical Society and Kent State chapter of Sigma Xi. He also had served on the Kent Planning Commission and as a Kent City Ward 4D precinct committeeman.
A trumpet player, Silvidi and his band, Tony's Angels, played music of the 1940s and 1950s at veterans hospitals and retirement centers.
He also won awards for race walking and jogging at local, state and national races and Senior Olympics events.
His wife of 63 years, Lillian, died last year.
Survivors include his children, Anita, Gina Silvidi-Cairns, Julius and Anthony; and 13 grandchildren.
Calling hours are 1-3 and 5-7 p.m. Monday, April 25, at , 628 West Main St.
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 26, at , 313 N Depeyster St.
Donations may be made to the , 127 Portage St., Kent, OH 44240; or the Kent State University Foundation, P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242.