(meteorobs) FW: {MPML} Fred Whipple (1906-2004)

Ed Majden epmajden at shaw.ca
Mon Aug 30 16:34:42 EDT 2004


    Very sad news on the passing of Professor Fred Whipple, Comet and Meteor
expert among many other noteworthy accomplishments.  He will very much be
missed.

Ed Majden

----------
From: grunwalder2002 <gareth at seneca.cfa.harvard.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 20:04:44 +0000
To: mpml at yahoogroups.com
Subject: {MPML} Fred Whipple (1906-2004)

Now that the following notice has come out of the
Director's Office here at CfA, I can now pass on
this sad news:

TO:      CfA Community
FROM:    Charles Alcock, George Field, and Irwin Shapiro
DATE:    30 August 2004
SUBJECT: Fred Whipple

Professor Fred Whipple died today, a few months shy of his
98th birthday. He had worked at the Harvard College Observatory
since 1931 and from 1955 to 1973 directed the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory here.  He was most famous for his
theory of comets as 'dirty snowballs.'  He had foreseen the
artificial satellite era and was prepared with a world-wide
tracking network, Moonwatch, when Sputnik was launched on
4 October 1957.  Fred initiated SAO's ground-based observatory
on Mt. Hopkins in Arizona and was instrumental in the design
and construction of the Multiple-Mirror Telescope.

A memorial service for Fred will be announced in the Fall.
In the meantime, his wife, Babbie, would prefer no phone calls,
visits, or cards.  Visiting arrangements will be
made at a later date.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MPML is supported in part via the 2002 Shoemaker NEO Grant Program of The
Planetary Society (http://www.planetary.org)




More information about the Meteorobs mailing list