In Memoriam

AAPT Member & Physics Community Obituaries

• Clifford Swartz, August 14, 2010
  Clifford E. Swartz, a founding member of the physics department faculty at Stony Brook University (State University of New York at Stony Brook) and editor for almost 30 years of The Physics Teacher, died August 14th at the age of 85.  He died of complications of Parkinson’s disease.
  
  Swartz was legendary for his lectures, demonstrations, and enthusiasm for teaching physics.  In 1987, he was awarded the Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers – which recognizes “those who have had an outstanding, widespread, and lasting impact on the teaching of physics.”  Other recipients have included Victor Weisskopf, Charles Kittel, Richard Feynman, and Carl Sagan.  In 2007, he was the tenth person to be honored with AAPT’s Melba Newell Phillips Award, presented only occasionally to an AAPT leader whose creative leadership and dedicated service have resulted in exceptional contributions to the Association.
   
  Between 1981 and 1983, Swartz was the first civilian physicist to teach at the Military Academy at West Point.  He was awarded the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal by the Department of the Army in 1983 for his efforts to change the physics curriculum at West Point.
    
  He authored or co-authored more than 30 books, most of them physics books and textbooks.   Prof. Laszlo Mihaly, chair of the physics department at Stony Brook said in his note to the department announcing the death of Dr. Swartz, “His 1998 book, Teaching Introductory Physics: A Sourcebook, should be a required reading to all high school science teachers.  Two of his other books, Phenomenal Physics and Back of the Envelope Physics are entertaining reading for anyone with interest in science.” 
  
  Swartz was editor of The Physics Teacher between 1967 and 1985, and again between 1990 and 2000.  His monthly editorials were legendary for their wit and advice on how people learn – with titles such as “No One Kissed the Physics Teacher.”  A collection of the editorials was published in 2006 under the title Cliff’s Nodes.
  
  Swartz was widely known for his efforts to change the teaching of science – especially physics – so that students from elementary school through college would learn by doing experiments rather than passively watching teacher demonstrations and lectures.  In the late 1950s he led the effort by physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory to bring what was then the “new” physics, known as PSSC Physics, to Long Island.  The PSSC effort was started at MIT in 1956; and in 1957-58 about 50 high school science teachers from Suffolk County attended weekly seminars by Swartz and others.  Challenged by one of the teachers to try teaching high school students, he jumped at the idea and taught at Port Jefferson High School in 1959-60, an experience he enjoyed enormously.  In later years at Stony Brook, he led a physics department seminar for students preparing to become high school physics teachers and he continued to lead a seminar for current high school physics teachers until four years ago.
  
  Swartz was one of the Westinghouse (now Intel) Science Talent Search Contest Finalists in 1942, the first year of the contest.  He was born in Niagara Falls, New York on February 21, 1925.  He was a 1945 graduate of the University of Rochester, where he earned his PhD in physics in 1951. 
  Starting in 1951, Swartz was a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory; there he worked on experiments with the Cosmotron, which was then one of the new generation of high energy accelerators.  With his new-found interest in teaching physics, he helped start the physics department at the new State University of Stony Brook in 1957, which was then housed in Oyster Bay.  For five years, he divided his time between the two institutions, becoming a full time faculty member at Stony Brook when the university moved to its new campus in 1962.  
  
  During the 1960s, he was a member of the New York State Department of Education committee to revise the high school physics syllabus, and he was the director of several National Science Foundation workshops and conferences to produce science materials for elementary school and junior high school students.  Swartz never turned down numerous requests from the American Institute of Physics to be a three-day Visiting Scientist to smaller colleges.
  
  He also wrote and published four books of poetry and short plays which were recited and performed in the Stony Brook community.  Some of his poems were for elementary school age children and were intended for a series of science books (Measure and Find Out) that he wrote for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.  In his early years at Brookhaven Laboratory, Swartz acted in plays at the Lab and helped lead a Great Books Society Group there with his wife.  He also sang in his church choir and found time to participate on committees for the village where he lived for more than 50 years.
  
  He was married for 63 years to Barbara Myers Swartz, an historian and civic leader who died this past February.  He is survived by their six children and seven grandchildren. 
  
  
• Timothy L. Battista, August 7, 2010
  Timothy Louis Battista, 56, died Saturday, August 7, 2010 at Hospice of the Western Reserve.
  
  A 1972 graduate of Ashtabula High School, he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Education from Malone College and his Master's from Youngstown State University. He had also taken numerous courses since then to further his education.
  
  A science teacher at Riverside High School in Painesville for the past 25 years, he taught AP Physics, Physics, Chemistry, and General Science. He loved being a teacher and thrived on working with the advanced kids who really wanted to learn. He was voted into the #1 Club at Riverside on numerous occasions, an honor of recognition from graduating Riverside students who choose their favorite teacher during their educational career.
  
  Tim was a long time member of AAPT and the Ohio Section of AAPT. He served for many years as a Physics Teachers Resource Agent (PTRA). Read the obituary at http://www.ducro.com/cgi-bin/ducro_obits_2009.pl?ID=1281292170&detail=1&Style.
  
  
• Lawrence Ruby, May 13, 2010
  We share with Oregon AAPT the sad news that Lawrence (Larry) Ruby has passed away. Larry served as ORAAPT treasurer and historian for many years.
  
  Most recently Larry was the person who put together all the paperwork
  to make ORAAPT a 501(c)3 organization several years ago which, in
  turn, made the ORAAPT Summer Cohort this summer possible.
  
  Lawrence Ruby was born July 25, 1925, in Detroit, Mich. He married
  Judith Friedberg in 1951. Larry earned his Bachelor of Arts, Master
  of Arts and his doctorate in physics from University of California at
  Los Angeles in 1945, 1947 and 1951 respectively. He was a professor
  of nuclear engineering at University of California at Berkeley from
  1960 to 1987. Larry and Judith then moved to Lake Oswego where Larry
  continued to teach at Portland-area colleges. He was also active in his
  community and served on the Lake Oswego Planning Commission. He will be missed by his family, colleagues, and friends.
  
  
• David Halliday, April 2, 2010
  David Halliday died in Maple Falls, Washington at the age of 94. An Emeritus member of AAPT, David was best known to the physics community because of his undergraduate textbook, "Fundamentals of Physics." This textbook has been in continuous use since 1960 and is available in twenty languages. Halliday spent the bulk of his career at the University of Pittsburgh where he was both student and professor, not to mention researcher and administrator. At the time of his death Halliday was still associated with the University of Pittsburgh as a professor emeritus, although he was retired and living in Seattle. Learn more about David Halliday from the University of Pittsburgh profile at http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/people/fprofile.php?id=156.
  
  

• Kelly Gamble Casey, April 2, 2010

  The northwest physics teaching community is mourning the death and celebrating the life of Kelly Casey, the sole full-time physics teacher of Yakima Valley Community College. Kelly was a healthy and active young man. He fell on his head in a tragic racquetball accident, languishing in a coma for weeks before passing away a earlier this month. Kelley was a creative and energetic physics instructor (he taught a course on the physics of superheroes) as well as the executive officer of the Pacific Northwest Association of College Physicists. He was fondly remembered at the PNACP meeting last weekend. He will be missed.
  
  

• Howard Glenn Voss, March 29, 2010
  The physics community paused to remember the life and service of former AAPT President and Arizona State University professor emeritus, Howard Glenn Voss who passed away March 29, 2010. Voss served in many roles including as founder and firector of the ASU Physics Service Course Facility, department chair, advisor, mentor, lecturer, and countless other university roles. His service to national scientific societies, in addition to AAPT, is also storied and brought him into close personal friendships with many Nobel Prize winning physicists. Although not a research physicist himself, Voss gave valuable service to the American Institute of Physics, on its governing Board, Publishing Policy Committee, and many other boards and committees.
  
  Voss was an active member of the Arizona Section of AAPT, mentoring and inspiring teachers at both the high school and college level. His leadership qualities led to his election to the AAPT Executive Board in 1983 and to the presidential chain leading to his AAPT presidency in 1994. He was presented an AAPT Distinguished Service Citation in 1990 and AAPT's prestigious Melba Phillips Award in 1999. Read the ASU tribute at http://physics.asu.edu/files/newsletter/Physics_Flash_Vol_2_%20No_3.pdf.  Physics Today obituary.
  

• Lawrence Edison Banks, Jr.- January 6, 2010

  Born in Lawton, OK, Banks received his B.S. and Ph.D from the University of Oklahoma. He became one of two physics faculty members in the “Science Department” of, then, Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University) in 1961. In 1968 he became head of the new “Physical Science” Department and, upon its division in 1972, he became the first Head of the Department of Physics. During his tenure the Department developed a strong physics major, an Astronomy minor, and a masters degree in materials science. Its faculty expanded to 15 members. In 1994 he became Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, from which he retired in 2006.
  
  Banks was a dedicated teacher and was active in guiding undergraduate students in research projects. These included early work with lasers leading to the development of a holography laboratory. He was an enthusiastic student of the application of computers in physics and developed an early course on their use. This eventually led, in cooperation with the Mathematics Department, to the creation of a new Computer Science Department. He was also an active supporter of the education of teachers in the sciences and aided in the development of a special physics course for pre-secondary teachers. In 2000 he was awarded the”Distinguished Service Award” from the Science Teachers of Missouri. He was a longtime member of AAPT and active in the Missouri Section from almost its inception, serving several times as President.
  

• Dr. Richard Vincent Mancuso - December 15, 2009

  The physics community joins SUNY Brockport in mourning the loss of Richard V. Mancuso, PhD, physics emeritus, who died on Tuesday, December 15, after serving the College with distinction since 1969. An active member of AAPT since 1993,he was one of the absolute stalwarts of the New York section, who has done a tremendous amount to advance physics education in New York.Dr. Mancusoalso served as a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Physics in Education. We extend our deepest sympathy to the Mancuso family. http://www.brockport.edu/eagle/view_item.php?id=346

• Dr. James Watson, Jr. - December 2, 2009

  Professor James Watson, Jr. passed away on December 2, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. He was an active member of AAPT and will be remembered for his dedication to science education.

  Read Dr. Watson's Obituary [BSU.edu]

• Roy H. Garstang, November 1, 2009
  

  Dr. Roy H. Garstang, Ph.D., 84, retired CU Professor of Physics and Astrophysics, and former Chair of JILA (Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado) died Sunday, November 1, 2009, in Boulder, Colorado. An Emeritus AAPT member, Roy Garstang was educated in mathematics at Cambridge University, and he spent many hours discussing both astronomy and Cambridge with Chandrasekhar at Yerkes Observatory in 1951-52. A professor of physics and astrophysics at the University of Colorado from 1964-94, he has worked on atomic spectroscopy, solar spectroscopy, atoms in high magnetic fields, light pollution modeling, and sundial errors. Roy Garstang's tremendous early assistance to IDA, both morally and scientifically, was essential to IDA's initial credibility and growth. His pioneering models on light pollution remain valuable references in the quantification of light pollution.
  

  Read his obituary from the Optical Society of America.

• George Patsakos - October 27, 2009

  Emeritus Professor George Patsakos, who retired 2 years ago, passed away on October 27, 2009. His immediate family was with him at the end. George first joined AAPT in 1973. Born in New York City in 1942 to Greek immigrants parents, George grew up in Brooklyn and attended James Madison High School. He graduated from Columbia University and earned his PhD in Physics from Stanford University.

  Patsakos was a professor in the Physics Dept. of the University of Idaho for many years, and retired two years ago. He was liked and respected by his students and peers. A true scholar with a very sharp mind., he helped everyone with his great intellect and very broad knowledge of physics. As a contemporary physicist, he personally met the founding fathers of modern physics such as Heisenberg, Oppenheimer, and Dirac, and roomed with Richard P. Feynman and often entertained the University of Idaho Physics Department with anecdotes of his meetings with these great minds. At a Remembrance Service held 11/5/09 Geroge was remembered as a great physicist, a broad thinking and warm and gentle human being.
  

• Richard Stephen Galik - October 23, 2009
  

  Cornell University Professor, and long time AAPT member, Richard S. Galik passed away on October 23, 2009. Galik joined the Physics Department at Cornell in 1992. He was a member of the New York State Section of the American Physical Society and an APS Fellow. Galik's was part of the CLEO collaboration which uses data collected at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) to study electron-positron interactions. He participated in the group's efforts in the areas of b/anti-b and c/anti-c resonance spectroscopy and decay. He also worked on R&D for the particle detector of the proposed International Linear Collider. A strong supporter of physics education and a mentor to his students, Galik leaves a legacy of growth and dedication.

• Dr. E. Leonard Jossem - August 29, 2009
  

  E. Leonard Jossem, age 90, of Columbus, passed away Saturday, August 29, 2009 at The Ohio State University Hospital. Jossem was a former AAPT President and Retired Professor Emeritus of the Physics Department at The Ohio State University.

• Read the AAPT Obituary & Press Release

• Dr. Laird C. Brodie - July 31, 2009

  AAPT joins members of the Oregon Section in celebrating the life and contributions of Laird C. Brodie who died on July 31, 2009. Brodie was Professor Emeritus with the Portland State University Department of Physics. He first joined AAPT in 1958 and remained an active member and contributor to the Association throughout his life.

• Betty Preece - May 17, 2009
  

  College Park, MD, May 27, 2009. The physics community and AAPT lost a friend and advocate on May 17 with the death of Betty Preece of Indialantic, FL. A long-time member of AAPT, Betty was recognized for her years of dedicated service with a Distinguished Service Citation in 1997. She served on many committees, including the Committee on Minorities, the Committee on Women in Physics, and the Committee on International Education.

  Read "Honoring the Life and Work of Science Educator, Betty Preece" Press Release
• Laszlo Tisza, April 15, 2009
  AAPT Emeritus member and MIT physics professor emeritus, Laszlo Tisza died on Wednesday, April 15, 2009. He was 101. He was an expert in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.
  Tisza, born in 1907 in Budapest, immigrated to the United States in 1941 and joined the MIT faculty. He taught at MIT until 1973, specializing in theoretical physics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and statistical physics. He joined AAPT in 1980 and was an ardent supporter of AAPT programs. Read the MIT article at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/obit-tisza-0416.html.
  

• Dr. Kenneth Edward Davis - February 23, 2009

  Former AAPT President, Kenneth E. Davis, died in Portland, Oregon on February 23, 2009 of heart failure. Dr. Davis served as AAPT President from 1976-1977. He was recognized with the AAPT Distinguished Service Citation in 1963 for his six years of service as Section Representative for the Oregon Section of AAPT.
  Read the article "Meet your new AAPT president: Kenneth Davis" from the February, 1976 issue of The Physics Teacher.