[SPA] SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER, Volume XXIX, Issue 37

[Newsletter Editor]

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION
SPA SECTION NEWSLETTER
Volume XXIX, Issue 37
Jun.27,2022

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Table of Contents

1. Obituary:  Edward Joseph Fremouw

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Announcement Submission Website: http://goo.gl/forms/qjcm4dDr4g


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Obituary:  Edward Joseph Fremouw

From: James Secan (james.secan at gmail.com)

I regret to inform the community that Dr. Edward J. Fremouw, known to all as “Ed”, passed away on  8 Jun 2022 at the age of 88.  Ed was my mentor and colleague, and brought me into the ionospheric scintillation community, a community in which he was an active participant for almost 40 years.

His initial interest in the ionosphere began in 1959 when he was selected to winter-over at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as the station’s official auroral observer.  This piqued what would be a life-long interest in the aurora, leading him to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF), from which he graduated with a PhD in Geophysics in 1967.

Ed began his professional career at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) after graduating from UAF, where he began work on ionospheric scintillation modeling in the early 1970s.  In 1976 he moved to Seattle and opened the Northwest office of Physical Dynamics, which became NorthWest Research Associates in 1986.  Ed was President until 2000, retiring from in 2004.

Ed was deeply involved in the first three satellites launched specifically to observe ionospheric scintillation:  Wideband (1976), HiLat (1983), and Polar BEAR (1986).  Data collected from these, and other, satellites formed the basis for Ed’s research and his development of the WBMOD scintillation model.  Ed was also an early worker in ionospheric tomography, overseeing the development of the analysis methodology and receivers used to collect the necessary data.

Ed was a very good scientist, a great president, and an even better person.  He helped many young researchers get their start, myself included, served his professional community through involvement in URSI, IEEE, and AGU, and also served his greater community through active involvement in the Unitarian Church.  Quite by accident I came across an old newspaper article that I feel shows the true Ed Fremouw.  Asked to write to a young handicapped girl during his stay at the South Pole Station, Ed sent her the following:

"I don’t know exactly how Antarctica was made, but I think whoever did it had some special, maybe magical, power, for He did a wonderful job.   And I think, perhaps, He would not mind if I share this fairyland of His with you.  I, therefore, do hereby crown you Princess Janie of Antarctica.  From this day on, you will be ruler of all the snow castles in this vast land."

That was Ed at age 26;  he never changed, and we will all miss him.

Jim Secan
NorthWest Research Associates, Inc. (retired)


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