In Memoriam

August 17, 2020,
It is with great sadness that I share the news that Nadine Barlow passed away this morning. As recently as two weeks ago, Nadine was helping to guide us to the start of the new academic year, and her dedication to the success of her colleagues and the students of APS during these challenging times was extraordinary. This is a tremendous loss for the University, and, speaking personally, I will greatly miss having her as part of the CEFNS leadership team.

Jason Wilder, Dean of the College of the Environment, Forestry & Natural Sciences

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August 19, 2020
I certainly did not know Nadine as long as many of you, but met her as part of the University Leadership Program (ULP). We were standing on a hotel roof during a meet and greet in the Phoenix sun (we can discuss the heat and timing of the day with Roger 😊 later). However, during ULP we noted an answer to, “Please tell us about a professional accomplishment you are proud of:” In true Nadine fashion, here is her response, “I was the second woman to enter the field of planetary geology. In spite of being continuously told in high school and college that women don’t go into astronomy and I should strive to be a high school science teacher rather than a professional astronomer, I persevered through sheer stubbornness. My main interest was always in the planets, mainly because planetary exploration with spacecraft was just beginning when I got interested in astronomy in 5th grade (Apollo 11 landed on the Moon the following year). I also devoured Percival Lowell’s books about life on Mars in high school and dreamed of working at Lowell Observatory someday (I’m close!!). I found my calling when I took a planetary geology course my senior year in college to satisfy my geology minor and fell in love with the subject.”

Scot Raab, Interim Associate Dean of CEFNS.

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Obituary in the Arizona Daily Sun

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Obituary in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society

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AAS Division of Planetary Sciences

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Lunar and Planetary Lab: Nadine Gail Barlow

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Women in Planetary Science: Remembering Nadine Barlow

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NASA Solar System Exploration: Nadine Barlow (1958-2020)

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Lunar and Planetary Institute: Nadine G. Barlow

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Nadine’s Bio on Wikipedia

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Nadine’s Google Scholar Profile

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Nadine’s Profile on ResearchGate

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Council on Undergraduate Research: Nadine Barlow Undergraduate Research Support Award

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Mars: An Introduction to its Interior, Surface and Atmosphere (Cambridge Planetary Science, Series Number 8) 1st Edition

(Obituary from the Arizona Daily Sun, March 16, 2024)

 

Richard was born to Ruth and John Hall on April 12, 1939, in Northampton, Massachusetts. After World War II ended, his family moved into Quarters B on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., where as a boy he built model airplanes and sailed his small boats on the Capitol reflecting pool and searched for his dog on the 72 acres of the observatory grounds. His maternal grandmother, who came to live with the family, taught him valuable mending skills, which he used all his life, and traditional aphorisms such as, “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.” He had the opportunity to attend Sidwell Friends School, where each day he read on the blackboard, “A word to the wise is sufficient.”

When Richard’s father was given the assignment to set up a branch of the Naval Observatory near Flagstaff, the family moved west to clearer skies and better astronomical viewing. During Richard’s years at Amherst College (B.S. 1960 in biophysics), and the University of Indiana (Ph. D. 1965 in astronomy), his family lived on Mars Hill, where his father was the director of Lowell Observatory.

Richard began his career in 1965 as NAU’s first astronomy professor, teaching a class called Man in Space and holding night labs on the roof of the chemistry building each week. After thirty-six years of teaching astronomy and physics, he retired in 2001. He was always an outdoor guy, viewing the sky, planting his crops and berry bushes in the spring, and running/bicycling/swimming whenever he could. He entered many competitions, from 5K races and triathlons to a Phoenix marathon. He was a creative woodworker, building a house for his family, and furniture, and boats for rowing and sailing.

From his earliest days in the U.S. Capitol he took an interest in national politics, becoming a lifelong reader of the New York Times. Science magazine was also a favorite of his, along with Wooden Boat magazine and Sky & Telescope. TV news and commentary kept him in touch with the world, especially in his later years.

Richard thoroughly disliked getting old; he wanted the independence to go out walking in all sorts of weather. And so it was that in late January, 2024 (while his normally attentive wife was away at a book club meeting), he took a walk in the freezing rain, slipped on an icy patch, and broke his neck. After spending a week in the intensive care unit of the hospital, he passed on February 1 with family by his side. He is survived by his wife Jane, his son Ian (Stephanie), his daughter Adrienne, his grandchildren Jeffrey, Kieffer, and Quinlan, his sister Carolyn (Dick), their daughter Tami (Mark), their son Scott, and their grandchildren Jack and Eric.

We have pondered holding a celebration of life sometime later in the spring when the weather warms up. In memory of Richard, we suggest that you go outside, become acquainted with the rocks and bushes and trees in your area, plant some vegetables—and on a clear, moonless night, look up at the stars.

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Obituary

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Arizona Daily Sun Obituary

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Andy’s ResearchGate Profile

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Arizona Daily Sun: View From Mars Hill: In Remembrance of Carolyn Shoemaker

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Carolyn’s US Geological Survey Personnel Page

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Carolyn’s Wikipedia Page

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USGS: Remembering Carolyn S. Shoemaker (1929–2021)

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New York Times: Carolyn Shoemaker, Hunter of Comets and Asteroids, Dies at 92

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The Guardian: Carolyn Shoemaker obituary

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NASA Solar System Exploration: Carolyn Shoemaker (1929-2021)

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KNAU: Remembering Carolyn Shoemaker, Comet Hunter: 1929-2021

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Nature Obitiuary: Carolyn S. Shoemaker (1929–2021)

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Sky & Telescope Magazine: Remembering Carolyn Shoemaker (1929–2021), by David Levy

Astronomy Magazine: Carolyn S. Shoemaker returns to the stars

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American Astronomical Society: Carolyn Shoemaker (1929-2021)

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APS News: The Back Page — An Unusual Orbit: The Life and Discoveries of Carolyn Shoemaker

It is with great sadness that I’m writing to inform everyone that Jessica Walsh and her parents were killed in a car accident yesterday while driving through New Mexico. At this time, this is all the information we know. For those of you who knew Jessica well you already know that she was a wonderful human being, a positive force to be reckoned with, an amazing friend and colleague, and she had an enthusiasm for life and learning that was unmatched. I for one am devastated to hear this news. I have no words that can describe the pain that many, including myself, will feel about this news.

Christopher Edwards (July 19, 2023)

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Obituary

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November 2024: The paper that Jessica Walsh was working on before her tragic accident was just published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Numeric ring-reconstructions based on massifs favor a non-oblique south pole-Aitken-forming impact event

Christopher Edwards notes that “this work, related to the formation of the South Pole Aiken Basin on the Moon, was what Jessica had presented on several occasions at conferences and in the department. She was working diligently to get this published the summer she passed away. In the accident, a significant portion of the manuscript materials, including text, figures, and data she had worked so hard on, were unrecoverable from her laptop. After combing through files on my lab servers, shared Google drives, and other sources, Dr. Hannes Bernhardt, a good collaborator of hers, led the effort to finalize the analysis and write up the paper. Many thanks are owed to him and the other co-authors for working through this and turning it into something I think Jessica would be proud of. This is, of course, only a small recognition of the impact Jessica would have made on the field throughout her career. Nevertheless, I’m happy to say this work is published in her memory.

I’ll also note that former postdoc Aurelien Stcherbinine had a paper published in Icarus, On the impact of the vertical structure of Martian water ice clouds on nadir atmospheric retrievals from simultaneous EMM/EXI and TGO/ACS-MIR observations, related to Mars clouds, and he perhaps summed it up best in the acknowledgment section of his article: