The QR code the inventor, left, made for the gravestone of late father, US Army veteran John Harold, right (Picture: Michael Bourque)

An inventor has immortalised his late father by creating a QR for his gravestone so cemetery visitors can learn about his life as an atomic veteran.

Michael Bourque, 55, wants to honour the legacy of his ‘great dad’, John Harold Bourque, who died in 2017 aged 87.

Mr Bourque used a 3D printer to make the QR code medallion out of weatherproof plastic that glows in the dark and attached it to his father’s gravestone.

People who scan the code are taken to a website featuring a biography of his father’s life.

Mr Bourque senior, the youngest of five children, was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, during the Great Depression and enlisted in the US Army during the Korean War in 1951.

A carpenter by trade, he was tasked with building homes destroyed during nuclear testing at Camp Desert Rock in Nevada.

Mr Bourque said: ‘When someone dies, they put a marker on the ground before you buy the stone. I thought, “Jeez, no one’s going to see this. There’s so much to know about my dad.”

‘And in an instant, I came up with this idea,’ he told DailyMail.com.

John Harold Bourque served in the US Army during the Korean War (Picture: Michael Bourque)

Mr Bourque told how his father had to hide in a bunker on the ground when they blew off the atomic weapon.

‘Then his job was to go back in and see the destruction that it had caused.’

Mr Bourque also hailed his father for nurturing his passion for innovation and engineering.

‘My dad taught me everything from plumbing to electricity to carpentry, and I credit a lot of my creativity and innovative skills and abilities to make things to my dad,’ he added.

And he believes his father would see the funny side of the gravestone QR code.

‘He’d be saying: “This is one of those products people are dying to use,” he joked.

A photo of the QR code went viral after Mr Bourque shared it on LinkedIn.

The gravestone of the atomic veteran, who died in 2017 aged 87 (Picture: Michael Bourque)

‘Everyone’s been scanning it, and when someone scans it, I know where they are in the world – even Korea, where my father fought in the Korean war,’ he added.

‘He’s be so thrilled to know his story reached that far.’

Now Mr Bourque plans to make another QR code for his brother, who died from ALS, a progressive disease of the nervous system.

And he is working with a UK-based company to develop an app to preserve people’s digital memories in a bid to make the practice of gravestone QR codes more widespread.  

He insists cemeteries are not ‘morbid’ but instead a ‘beautiful place to go’ – and a good location for an ‘immersive’ experience.

‘If QR codes were there, I think people would scan them.

‘I’m looking for a graveyard or cemetery that would like to build a new immersive experience,’ Mr Bourque added.

‘Let’s put these on all these graves.’

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The inventor’s father served in the US Army as an atomic veteran during the Korean War.