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Joseph F. Louvar passed away on December 11, 2023, at the age of 88. Louvar was best known as an outstanding advocate for process safety and undergraduate chemical engineering instruction in process safety. Louvar was born on September 27, 1935, in south Chicago, IL. He was the son of a Chicago fireman. He received his BS degree in 1957 from the Missouri School of Mines and Technology (currently Missouri University of Science and Technology), his MS degree from Carnegie Mellon in 1961, and his PhD from Wayne State University in 1983, all in chemical engineering. Louvar was in ROTC during his undergraduate years and graduated with the rank of second Lieutenant. In 1960, Louvar joined Corn Products as a process engineer. In 1961, Louvar married Berenice “Diane” Wassil who was working on her chemistry degree at Carnegie Mellon. They were married for 62 years until her passing in June of 2023. They have four children and eight grandchildren. In 1962, Louvar and his wife were hired by the Catholic Extension Society to manage St. Joseph's Orphanage in Bethany, Oklahoma. They directed a staff of 12 and cared for up to 70 children. In 1965, Louvar joined Wyandotte Chemicals (now BASF) in Wyandotte, MI as a development engineer. He held many positions at BASF, including Director of Inorganic R&D and Director of Chemical Engineering. His job functions included systems engineering, process design, R&D management, and small-scale production of chemicals. He retired from BASF in 2000. In 1983, Louvar received his PhD degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. His Ph.D. advisor was Dr. Daniel A. Crowl. In the summer of 1985, Louvar convinced Crowl to spend a summer working at BASF in Wyandotte, MI. Through this experience, Crowl recognized the importance of process safety to industrial operations and the necessity for undergraduate instruction in process safety. Louvar and Crowl form an inseparable team for process safety education. In 1987, Louvar became chair of the CCPS Undergraduate Education Committee, which would be renamed SACHE: Safety and Chemical Engineering Education in 1993. Louvar would also serve as chair of the AIChE 11a committee, Chair of the Loss Prevention Symposium, and Chair of the Safety and Health Division. In 1987, Louvar and Crowl decided that a textbook on process safety for undergraduate chemical engineers is essential. Their first edition was published in 1990. It is currently in the fourth edition. In 2000, Louvar was appointed Research Professor at Wayne State, a position he held until 2010. Louvar authored or coauthored 35 publications, 10 patents, and 2 books. In 1986, Louvar was recognized as the Chemical Engineer of the Year by the AIChE Detroit Local Section. In 1996, he became a Fellow of AIChE. In 1997, he received the Exceptional Accomplishment Award at Wayne State University. In 1998, he was inducted into the Distinguished Academy of Chemical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. In 2000, he was inducted into the Missouri S&T Academy of Chemical Engineers. In 2001, he received the Norton H. Walton/Russell L. Miller Award in Safety/Loss Prevention, the premier award from the AIChE Safety and Health Division (now the Process Safety Division). On a personal note, I wish I had noted the day Joe first walked into my office at Wayne State University. On that day, my life and the world changed for the better forever! Joe Louvar was a friend and colleague of mine. We were both members of the Loss Prevention Symposium group, also called the 11a committee. When I first joined the group in the late 90s, Joe was a senior leader of the group and had been in many leadership positions. I must have looked like I needed assurance because he became my mentor. He encouraged me to write papers to present at the symposium. He asked me to co-chair a session where he was the chair. With his encouragement, I grew into leadership positions myself and became the 2003 Loss Prevention Symposium Chair. Joe also contributed to the success of the Safety and Loss Prevention Division (the name was recently changed to the Process Safety Division). When I was the Division Chair in 2001, Joe requested that the Division support the inclusion of process safety concepts in the AIChE annual student process design competition. Support included providing Division members to review each design to evaluate the process safety and inherently safer design features in the design submissions. The request also asked the Division to provide money to pay for the winners' awards. The Division Executive Committee approved Joe's proposal. The Process Safety Division still supports the annual student design competition. These personal examples are just indications of how Joe has impacted process safety and the people involved in the process. As others have testified, Joe has positively guided many of us involved in process safety. Joe will be missed, but the positive impact he has made to process safety will live on. I met Joseph Louvar in 1988 at a BASF manufacturing firm located in Wyandotte, MI. It was the first workshop ever for chemical engineering faculty that focused on process safety. BASF and the National Science Foundation co-sponsored. I had been in the paper industry and I was aware of the industry's commitment to safety. What I did not understand was the difference between occupational safety and process safety. I quickly caught on. I also heard one key message excellent process safety begins with management. Everyone must buy into the practice of excellent process safety. This includes the CEO and the Board of Directors. Every employee must have the authority to stop production if it appears a condition is heading into a dangerous situation. I witnessed this requirement a few days later. A young black female employee pressed the red button when an alarm came in due to butane being detected within a tank storage farm. A vice president from BASF America was the person who initiated this butane leak. It led to a cascade of many activities on the exercise called an emergency response drill. I suspect that a million-dollar-a-day process had been shut down for this exercise. Joseph Louvar was behind this whole sequence of events. He changed many academic pathways that day. Like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the Greek-descended father ties every word back to the Greek language, I can tie back many advances and changes over the past 30 years in the messaging of process safety back to Joseph Louvar. He is especially impactful at the undergraduate chemical engineering student level. I will conclude by bringing up another side of Joseph Louvar. He gave back to the community. He was always generous with his time and guidance to those who were in need. This includes a stint running an orphanage in the early 1960s in Oklahoma with his wife Diane. What an interesting pathway—orphanage director to a world leader in process safety education. Not bad for a person of few words and great inner confidence. I was fortunate enough to start attending the AIChE Loss Prevention Symposia in 1976. By 1984, I was privileged to teach a two-day AIChE course with Dr. Trevor Kletz. Sometime about 1990, Trevor encouraged me to meet up with Dr. Daniel Crowl (a rising star in process safety) to present Trevor's concepts to Dan. I barely knew who Dan was. I believe that was about the time (1990) I met and got to know Dr. Joseph F. Louvar. As I recall if you saw Dan, Joe was with him or if you saw Joe, Dan was with him. Joe was talented. I recall that he had developed the cover on one of the early issues of Process Safety Progress with photographs of electrostatic sparks. It was innovative for the time. Joe was warm, enthusiastic, and supportive. We tended to get together at most of the annual AIChE Loss Prevention meetings and the after-session meals. He was a genuine friend, coach, and team player. Joe would go out of his way to help those of us with little experience. Many of the specifics of our relationship have eroded over time. However, I remember an approachable, encouraging true friend who was ready to help anyone with loss prevention issues. I salute him for a life well lived! Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.