From: Dr. H. Paul Shuch (n6tx_at_setileague.org)
Date: Mon Apr 25 2005 - 08:43:17 PDT
SETI Patriarch Prof. Philip Morrison
remembered by Dr. H. Paul Shuch
Executive Director, The SETI League, Inc.
It grieves me to report the passing of a legend, and an honored friend.
I have just been informed by his son Bert that Professor Philip
Morrison, co-author of the world’s first serious scientific paper on
SETI, passed away quietly at home on Friday, 22 April 2005. He was 89
years of age.
Dr. Philip Morrison, Institute Professor and Professor of Physics at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a distinguished
theoretical astrophysicist and a pioneer in the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence through radio communication. He authored
scores of books, produced television documentaries, and lectured
tirelessly around the world, despite the physical limitations imposed
upon him by Post-Polio Syndrome. In one of his many roles as a science
educator, Dr. Morrison served on the Board of Advisors for the
television science series NOVA. In another, he was columnist and book
reviewer for Scientific American. In yet a third, it was Phil Morrison
who chaired NASA’s early study groups on SETI.
Along with most of the bright young physicists of his generation, Phil
Morrison spent the war years working on the Manhattan Project, the
development of the first atomic bomb. Unlike many of his Los Alamos
colleagues, he went on to become a staunch pacifist, anti-war activist,
opponent to nuclear proliferation, and a co-founder of the Union of
Concerned Scientists. I asked him, just a few years ago, if he
regretted his wartime activities. “On the whole, no,” was his
paradoxical reply. “At the time, we believed Germany was close to
developing an atomic bomb. Even when they failed to do so, ending the
war with Japan remained a priority. The regrettable bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki did bring that conflict to an end, and saved
countless tens of thousands of lives on both sides. My only regret is
the dark period that followed.”
Undeniably one of the patriarchs of SETI, Professor Morrison had long
since gone inactive on the ham bands when in 1959 he coauthored
“Searching for Interstellar Communications” in the British science
journal Nature. His boyhood interest in Amateur Radio had motivated his
interest in exploring the feasibility of microwaves for interstellar
communication. During SETI’s Golden Age, he inspired a whole generation
of engineers and scientists, including the founders of The SETI League,
to think beyond human limitations.
On a personal note, my own SETI interests were motivated by following
in Phil Morrison’s footsteps (albeit from a distance of 30 years). As an
EE undergraduate at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, I had the
privilege of operating W3NKI, the campus ham radio station he had
founded three decades prior. From Carnegie Tech, Phil went on to earn a
Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Many years later, so
did I. Phil encouraged my SETI League efforts from the start. He did
me the great honor of writing the jacket blurb for my hypertext book
“Tune In The Universe!” (Copyright © 2001, ARRL), contributed generously
to The SETI League of his time and financial resources, and over the
years became a close friend and mentor.
Phil Morrison is remembered as much for his modesty as for his energy.
Nearly a decade back, on November 7, my wife Muriel and I happened to
be in Cambridge MA, where I was to interview that year’s crop of
outstanding MIT and Harvard graduate students. We rang up Phil’s wife
and longtime collaborator, the late Phylis Morrison, and asked if we
could get together. She immediately suggested their favorite Japanese
restaurant, where we met, dined, and talked until closing time,
whereupon Phil insisted on picking up the check. From the restaurant,
the four of us went to the Morrison’s modest Cambridge flat, where we
proceeded to sit up half the night, engaging in one of the free-wheeling
and intellectually stimulating conversations for which the Morrisons
were noted.
A week later, having returned home, I began working on an essay which
was to include a mention of Phil and his contributions to the art and
science of SETI. In order to get my facts straight, I thumbed my
well-worn copy of David Swift’s “SETI Pioneers” to Phil’s biography, and
was shocked to read his date of birth: 7 November 1915. We had spent
the whole evening of his eightieth birthday together, and neither Phil
or Phylis had said a word about it!
I rang up Phil, and asked “Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday?”
He replied, “Because if you had known, you might not have come.”
My last telephone conversation with Phil Morrison occurred seven weeks
ago, following the death of my own father (they were of the same
generation). I expressed concern for Phil’s health, and we made plans
to celebrate his 90th birthday, next November 7th. A father figure to
many of us, Phil Morrison’s death leaves a void that can never be filled
– but I feel compelled to try. When I grow up, I want to be Phil Morrison.
-- H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D. Executive Director, The SETI League, Inc. 433 Liberty Street, PO Box 555, Little Ferry NJ 07643 USA voice (201) 641-1770; fax (201) 641-1771; URL http://www.setileague.org email work: n6tx_at_setileague.org; home: drseti_at_cal.berkeley.edu "We Know We're Not Alone!"
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