Aden Meinel was a versatile scientist who designed some of our fastest cameras, spectrographs, and telescopes. He worked in airglow and aurora, started the Kitt Peak National Observatory and the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona, designed the first successful multi-mirror telescope, and designed space telescopes for JPL. He generously helped develop telescopes in other countries, such as LAMOST in China.
Soren Werner Henriksen, one of the first to apply space age data to the mapping sciences, died September 5, 2011, at the age of 95. He was a polymath in the fields of geodesy, surveying, photogrammetry, cartography, and astronomy, his culminating achievement being “Glossary of the Mapping Sciences,” a 581 page compendium published in 1994.
An obituary is being prepared by the AAS Historical Astronomy Division. Contact the Chair of the Obituary Committee to supply or request additional information.
An obituary is being prepared by the AAS Historical Astronomy Division.
Hakki Boran Ögelman died in Austin, Texas, on September 4, 2011, after battling esophageal cancer for several months. Hakki was born in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, 1940, and was the son of Salehettin Ögelman, a lawyer, and Vedya Özlem Ögelman, a schoolteacher. He had a sister, older by three years, the late Esen Yerliçi. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Istanbul, where Hakki attended the Robert College from sixth grade and obtained an international baccalaureate at age 17.
Seth L. Tuttle, 80, a retired physicist who worked 25 years at the National Science Foundation (NSF) died on August 8, 2011, at the Dove House hospice in Westminster, MD, from complications of a fall that he suffered while visiting his son in Denver, in December, 2010 and that left him a quadriplegic.
Richard D. Schwartz, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, died at his home in Sequim, WA, after a nearly 3 year battle against pancreatic cancer. Richard was born in Pretty Prairie, Kansas. He was active in sports and band and graduated in 1959. After completing a BS at Kansas State, and a Master's degree in Divinity at Union Seminary in NY, he further studied astrophysics, receiving his doctorate from University of Washington in 1973.
Dr. Einar Andreas Tandberg-Hanssen was born on 6 August 1921, in Bergen, Norway, and died on July 22, 2011, in Huntsville, AL, USA, due to complications from ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease).
His parents were administrator Birger Tandberg-Hanssen (1883-1951) and secretary Antonie “Mona” Meier (1895-1967).
He married Erna Rønning (27 October 1921 - 22 November 1994), a nurse, on 22 June 1951. She was the daughter of Captain Einar Rønning (1890-1969) and Borghild Lyshaug (1897-1980).
Dipak Basu was born in Dhaka in 1939, during a tumultuous period of history in what was then undivided India. During the partition of the country at independence from Britain, he and his family fled the internecine violence as refugees, with only the proverbial clothes on their backs, eventually settling in Kolkata, West Bengal. Being interested in the physical sciences from an early age, Dipak spent his student years at the University of Kolkata, achieving his PhD in physics in 1967.
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Dr. Edward W. Burke Jr. passed away on June 15, 2011, after suffering a heart attack. Dr. Burke devoted his professional life to the research and teaching of physics and astronomy at King College in Bristol, Tennessee.
John P. Oliver, an emeritus professor of astronomy at the University of Florida in Gainesville, passed away Thursday, February 10, 2011, after a courageous and long battle with renal cancer. He left behind memories of a life and career to envy. During his forty years of service to his profession and department, this unique astronomer distinguished himself as a research scientist and instrumentalist, creative software designer, gifted teacher and speaker, a vocal advocate of public outreach, and friend to all who knew him.
BACKGROUND
The name of Carl Alvar Wirtanen will always be recognized as the second member of the hyphenated name pair "Shane-Wirtanen" designating the well-known Lick survey for galaxies. He was born on 11 November 1910 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he attended the local public schools. He was attracted to astronomy at age 12 when his violin teacher brought him to a local observatory to view stars through a telescope. This led him to make his own reflecting telescope and deepen further his interest in astronomy.
A. J. J. van Woerkom, known to his friends as "Jos", died on July 8, 1991, at the age of 75 in Yale-New Haven Hospital after a brief illness. From 1972 to 1990 he was Chief Scientist in the Office of the Technical Director of the Naval Underwater Systems Center in New London, Connecticut. Prior to that he served for 16 years at the Electric Boat Company as technical director and later program manager of primary research efforts which underlie present submarine integrated combat systems.
Katsuo Tanaka was born in 1943 in Tokyo to a prosperous family who encouraged him in the difficult preparation for Tokyo University. He completed undergraduate and graduate studies there, working on radiative transfer and line formation. He obtained his Ph.D degree in 1971 for study of chromospheric spectra from the 1966 eclipse in Peru, working under Prof. Z. Suemoto.
James Stokley, native of Philadelphia, died December 29, 1989, at age 89. Best known as a science popularizer, in 1925 Stokley started a 53-year association with Science Service. From 1926 to 1977 its "Science News" magazine featured his regular column describing events in the night sky. Author of seven books, his most successful were "Atoms to Galaxies" and ''Electrons in Action."
Charlotte Moore Sitterly was born in Ercildoun, Pennsylvania. Her parents were both teachers and her father was the superintendent of schools in Chester county for many years. She was the youngest of four children, one boy and three girls. She and a sister two years older were very close. Well into her eighties, Charlotte drove to Pennsylvania on many weekends to be with her sister who was then in a nursing home. Her parents' interest in education had a strong influence on the family. The children played many educational games at home. Both sisters went into teaching.