Dr. Miner Joe Sloan, 84, a retired entomologist and executive for Shell Oil Company, died Saturday, January 3, 2009, in Sibley Memorial Hospital’s Renaissance skilled nursing unit in Washington, D.C.

He was a native of Tryon and a Washington resident for the past 31 years, he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Dr. Sloan was a toxicology expert who served as Shell’s manager of regulatory affairs from 1968 until his retirement in 1984, first for the agricultural chemicals division of Shell Chemical Company and then for its Shell Oil parent. With Shell and subsequently as a consultant to the American Industrial Health Council, he was an industry leader in advocating better science in government risk assessment and regulation.

Miner Joe Sloan was born in Tryon on May 27, 1924, the son of Florence and Miner Clarence Sloan.

His father founded and served as president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank in Tryon until his death in 1965. Dr. Sloan developed a keen interest in entomology in high school and graduated as the salutatorian of the Tryon High School class of 1941. He attended Oklahoma A&M before enlisting and entering the U.S. Navy in July 1943.

After training at North Texas Agricultural College and graduating from Midshipman’s School at Columbia University in New York, he was commissioned in December 1944 as an ensign. After further training in Hollywood, Florida and Harvard University, he served as a communications officer on the USS Amick in the Pacific. Just after World War II ended, he returned to Stillwater to complete his bachelor’s degree in entomology from Oklahoma A&M; in 1948 and received his doctorate in entomology from Cornell University in 1951. He then began working for Shell Chemical’s agricultural chemicals division in New York.

Before focusing on regulatory affairs, Dr. Sloan specialized in product development while serving in Shell’s New York, Houston, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis offices. He returned to the Washington office in 1977 from the headquarters of the agricultural chemicals division in San Ramon, California, to administer and coordinate Shell Oil’s compliance with federal regulations on health, safety and the environment.

Dr. Sloan collected butterflies and coins, and was an avid gardener, world traveler and golden retriever owner. He was a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, the Entomological Society of America, the New York Academy of Sciences, the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology and the North American Butterfly Association. He regularly attended annual reunions of Tryon High School alumni, including their most recent reunion in May 2008.

His wife of 44 years, Elizabeth Angerer Sloan, who was raised in Stillwater and whom he met at Oklahoma A&M, died in 1997. His siblings, Hope Vassar of Chandler; Gerald of Tryon; and Vernadene Staten of Tryon, predeceased him.

Survivors include his wife of nine years, Anne T. Sloan, of Washington; two children from his first marriage, David M. Sloan of Washington and Marjorie Taylor of Valencia, California; and two grandchildren, Jordan Taylor of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Hayden Taylor of Valencia.

Many of his nieces, nephews and their families continue to reside in Oklahoma, including in Tryon, Chandler, Stillwater, Bristow, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

A lunch in Dr. Sloan’s honor was held on January 24 in the Cosmos Club in Washington.

A family memorial will take place this spring in Tryon, where his ashes will be scattered.