Alec Tom Binding

Saturday morning, July 9 at age 94, Alec’s full life came to an end at Rialto Assisted Living in California. At the end he was in the hearts of caring staff, Nova hospice, his adult children and friends with whom he celebrated Father’s Day and his birthday. Although his body was failing, his mind and spirit were active and we feel a keen loss at his passing.

Born June 30, 1928 to Edith (Cis) Binding (nee Nicholas) and Edmund Drury Binding, a self taught industrial chemist. Alec grew up in the Quantock hills of Watchet, Somerset County in England and with his younger brother Ray and sister Stella lived a sporting life in the harbor town. Tragically, their older sister Pauline died at fourteen years from complications of asthma. In his midteens the second world war was raging and he participated by running messages for the Home Guard and trained to fire a bomber machine gun before the war ended.

He excelled academically and was reportedly the first in town to be accepted at sixteen to a college in nearby Bristol, studying Aeronautics. This bright and fit young man who boxed and played rugby drew the attention of Joan Mary Cooper, two years older and training in secretarial school. They corresponded when he was accepted to the prestigious Cranfield College of Aeronautics in Oxford, where he studied Aircraft Design and Engineering.  Before he could finish, however, he was playing for the school rugby team and broke his neck in a scrum. Alec awoke in a body cast, paralyzed f rom the neck down for more than four months. He was the favorite of the nurses, so Joan joined him and learned some physical therapy.

Alec recovered slowly and was eager to complete his courses, having missed a year. After graduation he worked for the Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC) and married Joan on July 4, 1953. His work on fighter jet design and propulsion drew the attention of Avro Canada. They emigrated to Toronto and delighted in the birth of daughter Teresa (Young) in 1954 and first son Paul in 1956. The innovative Avro Arrow jet interceptor (Mach 2) program he was involved in was cancelled by a new government.  They boarded the Queen Mary for England and he returned to BAC. The young family lived in Saint Annes near Blackpool, England in a nice Edwardian house across from the beach dunes, and welcomed a second son, Russell.

Joan convinced Alec to ditch the damp weather for sunny California, and he landed a position with the Powerplant division of Douglas Aircraft, Long Beach in 1963. It became McDonnell Douglas and Alec managed as many as sixteen engineers developing commercial airliners: the DC-8, DC-9and DC-10. Alec was recognized as one of the premier specialists in preventing fires in engine systems and reducing the effects of lightning strikes, serving on FAA boards and investigating airliner crashes. As their children became adults and left the Garden Grove house, Joan and Alec divorced on their 25th wedding anniversary and they decided to sell the family home and Alec retired early at fifty in 1979 to contemplate the rest of his life.

This noble career would be enough for many, but for Alec it was just a sabbatical and over the next ten years he studied Psychology, convinced he could assist others with stress-related work, marriage, family, and substance abuse mental health problems. During this time he moved to the beach communities of south Orange County, made trips to Esalen, attended the Church of Religious Science, golfed, joined a writing club, played a mean game of tennis and spent time with women friends. He took singing lessons, had a fine tenor voice and participated in senior choral groups and productions. About age sixty he passed the written and oral board requirements and earned his Doctorate in Psychology and opened offices in Newport Beach and Laguna Niguel.

He practiced professionally for a few years until his old cervical injuries caused him to lose mobility, He moved in with his children in turn before moving into a comfortable San Bernardino Mountains cabin in Running Springs near his daughter Teresa who became his primary caregiver. He became frail enough to spend his last few months in assisted living. Alec lived an enviable, full and productive life and will be missed by his surviving family and friends.