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Death NoticeTheodore Prey Jorgensen 13 November 1905 - 02 April 2006 Published on 01 May 2006 Theodore Prey Jorgensen, born 13 November 1905, died in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 2 April 2006. He entered the University of Nebraska in 1923, receiving his BA in 1928 and his MA in 1930. He received his PhD from Harvard in 1935. After serving as an instructor at Harvard and Clark University, he returned to the University of Nebraska physics department in 1938, where he enjoyed the rest of his teaching career. During World War II he was recruited to serve with the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico (1943-46). He was present at the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site on 16 July 1945, assisting with measuring the strength of the explosion. Returning to the University of Nebraska, he directed the Nebraska Accelerator Project (1946-67), was department chair (1949-52), and received a distinguished teaching award (1963). After retiring in 1975, he directed his energies to golf research and the writing of his book The Physics of Golf (AIP Press, 1994), which has been translated into Japanese and Korean. His last research paper, "Relativity anf the Quantum," was published in 1998 in the International Journal of Theoretical Physics. Jorgensen was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Betta Kappa, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Sigma Tau. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, of Lincoln, Nebraska, and three stepchildren. He is also survived by his daughter, Joanna J. Kaestner, one grandson, and two great grandchildren, all of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Joanna J. Kaestner Current comments and reminiscences on Theodore Prey Jorgensen:With the death earlier this year of Theodore Jorgensen, the University of Nebraska and the physics community lost a remarkable research scientist and educator. Truly, it can be said that the renaissance of serious physics research at the University after a fifty-year hiatus dates from the return of Ted Jorgensen to the campus in 1946 after war-time duty at Los Alamos. It was at that time that Ted almost single-handedly raised the money for and built the Cockcroft-Walton accelerator that formed the centerpiece for experimental atomic research at Nebraska. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be at the University in the 1960's while Ted was still active in the accelerator laboratory were able to see the enthusiasm, knowledge, and determination with which he approached his research. My colleagues and I could not help but recognize the important role that this laboratory had played in making Nebraska a supportive environment for our own research. For me personally, Ted Jorgensen was a friend and mentor. Many is the time that I took advantage of the reclining chair that he kept in his office to sit back and unburden myself of the problems of the day: I could always rely on receiving solid practical advice, be it scientific or administrative. The last time I saw Ted was when he visited Georgia Tech to deliver an invited lecture on the physics of golf. Because of his advanced years (he was about ninety at the time), his sponsor suggested that he deliver the lecture while seated. Ted would have none of it. He gave the lecture standing. His voice was steady and his analysis lucid. Indeed, he looked and acted little different from the Ted Jorgensen that I remembered from twenty years earlier. The strength of character and resoluteness of purpose that had allowed him to rebuild physics research at Nebraska were again on display. In many ways, Ted had the characteristics of those pioneers who settled the "Great Plains" and built their society quite literally from the ground up. He will be missed by all who knew him. Henry S. Valk Revered U. Nebraska physics professor dies at age 100
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