[meteorite-list] Bill Gordon, Father of Arecibo Observatory, Dies at 92

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:06:22 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201002200106.o1K16MgZ001833_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

February 18, 2010

Contact:
Blaine Friedlander
Cornell University
+1 (607) 254-8093; Cell: (607) 351-2610
bpf2 at cornell.edu

BILL GORDON, FATHER OF ARECIBO OBSERVATORY, DIES AT 92

Bill Gordon, the engineer who conceived, built and managed the Arecibo
Observatory -- arguably the world's largest ear aimed toward the
universe -- located in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, died Feb. 16 in Ithaca,
N.Y. He was 92 and died of natural causes.

Gordon was serving on Cornell University's engineering faculty when,
in the late 1950s, he began designing a very large radar system
capable of studying the properties of the Earth's ionosphere out to
distances of several thousand miles, a region of the Earth's
atmosphere of great interest in the post-Sputnik era.

Gordon realized that such a telescope could also contribute
significantly to the study of the solar system and to the then
relatively new field of radio astronomy. Taking a technical gamble, he
and his Advanced Research Project Agency sponsors designed a telescope
with a 1,000-foot fixed spherical reflector and a movable focusing
system that is suspended above the reflector.

The resulting structure was a marvel of civil engineering. It was so
large that the Empire State Building could fit sideways and the
Washington Monument could easily fit standing from the dish bottom to
its focal point. The observatory was inaugurated in 1963 when the
first measurements of the properties of the ionosphere were made.

Within a year of opening, the telescope was used to determine the
planet Mercury's rotation period and, after radio pulsars -- rotating
neutron stars -- were discovered in 1967, played a prominent role in
studying the properties of these unique objects. The first binary
pulsar was discovered using Arecibo in 1974, leading to the
confirmation of the existence of gravitational radiation and the 1993
Nobel Prize for its discoverers.

The telescope itself held a prominent role in the film 'Contact'
(1997) and the title role in the James Bond film 'GoldenEye' (1995).

At Arecibo's 40th Anniversary in 2003, Gordon said: "When we were
talking about building [the telescope] back in the late '50s, we were
told by eminent authorities it couldn't be done. We were in the
position of trying to do something that was impossible, and it took a
lot of guts and we were young enough that we didn't know we couldn't
do it. It took five years from idea to dedication, and that is short.
But we were in the right place at the right time and had the right
idea and the right preparation. We had no rules or precedents."

The observatory, now operated by Cornell through the National
Astronomy and Ionosphere Center for the National Science Foundation,
has enjoyed two major equipment upgrades since opening, and it remains
a unique and vital scientific tool -- as today it searches for
asteroids and comets aimed at the Earth.

Gordon served as the observatory's director from 1960 to 1965. Using
the radar signals returned by charged particles, he studied the
temperature, density, chemical composition and other properties of the
ionosphere, which he called "both the gateway to space and our first
line of defense against the deadly radiation streaming toward us from
the Sun and other stars."

William E. Gordon was born Jan. 8, 1918, in Paterson, N.J. Gordon
earned a bachelor's degree from Montclair State Teacher's College, a
master's degree from New York University and his doctorate at Cornell.

During World War II, Gordon served in the Air Force as captain and
electronics engineer; and worked with the National Defense Research
Committee on the effects of weather on radar range. He came to Cornell
in 1948. In 1950, Gordon published (with Henry G. Booker) the theory
of radio wave scattering in the troposphere.

In 1966 Gordon moved to Rice University, where he served as a
professor, dean, provost and vice president, retiring in 1985. He is
one of only two Rice faculty to be honored with the title
Distinguished Emeritus Professor.

Gordon was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the
National Academy of Engineering; a foreign associate of the
Engineering Academy of Japan; and a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of
Science, American Geophysical Union and Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers.

Among many international honors, Gordon received the 1966 Balth van
der Pol Gold Medal, the 1984 Arctowski Gold Medal, a 1985 USSR Academy
of Sciences Medal for distinguished contributions in international
geophysical programs and the Centennial Medal of the University of
Sofia in 1988.

In 1941, he married Elva Freile. She died in 2002. Their survivors
include their two children, Larry and Nancy; four grandchildren,
Matthew and Amanda Gordon, and George and Elizabeth Ward; and three
great-grandsons: Jacob, Kyle and Andrew Gordon. In 2003, after the
deaths of their respective spouses, he married Mary Elizabeth
Bolgiano, a friend of long standing.
Received on Fri 19 Feb 2010 08:06:22 PM PST