William Cuming; survived ship sinking to build a firm

Hours passed, then almost two days without rescue, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf raged. Some went mad from drinking seawater and swam away to catch their hallucinations. More than 100 from the aircraft carrier died in the water.

Mr. Cuming, a calm and focused radar specialist, chased the floating demented and tied them close, said his friend Henry Pyzdrowski, 87, who was then a 21-year-old fighter pilot.

"We'd go out and retrieve the men who would set astray," said Pyzdrowski of Minnetonka, Minn. "Bill was a strong swimmer. He played his role very well. He was a gentleman of the first order."

Mr. Cuming, a longtime Sharon resident who cofounded a successful Bay State chemical engineering firm and launched a Massachusetts company now specializing in stealth bomber technology, died of pneumonia May 28 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He was 88 and lived in Cotuit.

"He was very hard working, very serious, but he also had a good sense of humor," said his son, John of Avon. "He was the type of person who would command your attention, just very engaging and knowledgeable about this broad spectrum of subjects."

Born in New York City, Mr. Cuming was the youngest son of a dentist. He grew up in Cedarhurst, on Long Island, and earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1942 from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He went to work for the Monsanto Co. in Everett immediately after graduation.

He was on the job about six months when events of World War II led him to volunteer for the Navy, according to his son.

After the war, Mr. Cuming taught electronics at MIT and earned a master of business administration degree from Harvard in 1947.

In 1948, he and Cherry Emerson, an engineer he met while working at Monsanto, put their desks together in his rented room in Boston and launched their own firm, Emerson & Cuming.

Over the years, the Canton-based company carved a niche in the electronics industry, inventing epoxy resins and coatings to protect components, and grew to an international powerhouse with 700 employees.

Mr. Cuming met his wife, Ruth (DeVenne), on a blind date. He took her to hear big-band leader Vaughn Monroe at a supper club called The Meadows in Framingham, Ruth said.

"He was handsome," she said of her husband. "He was a gentleman and was well recommended by this mutual friend."

The courtship continued over four years while Mr. Cuming worked long hours building his company. He eventually proposed, and they were married 51 years.

In 1978, Mr. Cuming and Emerson sold their firm to W.R. Grace. Emerson died in 2007 at age 90.

After the sale of Emerson & Cuming, Mr. Cuming launched a new technologies company from his home in Sharon and also opened a public bird sanctuary in Norton in 1980.

His new business became Cuming Corp., now a leading supplier of flotation and insulation materials to the offshore oil and gas industry. His son, John, is chief financial officer and vice president.

A sister company, Cuming Microwave Corp., manufactures radar-absorbing materials and microwave materials for the electronics and aerospace industries.

According to his son, Mr. Cuming rarely spoke to his family about surviving the Japanese attack on the Gambier Bay.

He saved his recollections for annual gatherings with his shipmates, which began in the 1950s, and hosted their event several times on Cape Cod.

In 1979, Mr. Cuming put up $50,000 so the veterans could hire Edwin Hoyt to write a nonfiction account of the battle titled "The Men of Gambier Bay."

Mr. Cuming and several shipmates presented the book to President Reagan at an event in 1981.

"Without Bill Cuming, that book would never have been published," said his shipmate Edward Hagerty of Minneapolis. "He's been so instrumental all the way through in our group. He's going to be missed terribly."

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Cuming leaves his brother Alfred of Athens, Ga.

A memorial service is planned for this summer on Cape Cod. Burial will be private.