Deceased--Walter R. Steiger

Walter R. Steiger
Unknown to February 6th, 2011

"UH-Hilo physics professor killed in scooter crash"

February 7th, 2011

staradvertiser.com

Walter R. Steiger, University of Hawaii professor emeritus of physics and astronomy and considered one of the founders of the UH astronomy program, was killed Sunday in a scooter crash in Hilo.

Big Island police said Steiger, 87, was driving a 2009 Honda Metropolitan scooter and traveling west on Kukuau Street in Hilo at 1:20 p.m. when he failed to stop at the stop sign and broadsided a 2006 Nissan SUV traveling north on Komohana Street.

The driver of the Nissan, a 51-year-old Hilo man, was not injured.

Fire rescue personnel took the Nissan’s passengers, a 41-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl, to Hilo Medical Center, where they were treated for minor injuries and released.

They were all wearing seat belts.

Steiger, who was wearing a helmet, was pronounced dead at Hilo Medical Center at 3 p.m.

Police said it does not appear that alcohol, drugs or speeding were involved.

It was the fourth traffic fatality on the Big Island this year compared with five at this time last year.

After Steiger retired from UH-Manoa in 1980, he served as the manager of the Science Center of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu until 1986. From 1987 to 1992 as the site manager of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea. From 1982 to 1984 he served on the UH Board of Regents. Since 1993 he had been a lecturer in physics and astronomy at UH-Hilo.

Steiger received a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT in 1948, after having served three years in the military. After receiving an master’s degree in physics at UH in 1950, he earned his PH.D. in physics from University of Cincinnati and was offered an assistant professorship at UH.

In an attempt to take advantage of Hawaii’s natural assets, Steiger proposed to look into the potential of an astronomical observatory on one of Hawaii’s volcano summits. That led to the establishment in 1957 of an interim solar observatory on Oahu at Makapuu Point and, in 1961, a permanent facility on Haleakala.

He wrote...

I came to UH Manoa in 1948 as a graduate student in Physics.

After my Ph.D. on the mainland, I returned to UH Manoa in 1953 as the third member of the Physics Department.During my career at Manoa, I began an astronomy program and developed a solar observatory at Makapuu Point on Oahu, which later was supplanted by one on Haleakala, Maui.After an early retirement in 1980, I entered a new form of teaching: operating the Bishop Museum Planetarium. In 1987, looking for another new challenge, I was offered the opportunity to work on Mauna Kea as Site Manager for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. After retirement from CSO, I was back to my first love, teaching physics, this time at UH-Hilo, as a part-time lecturer. Now I talk and write about the origins of astronomy in Hawai’I and help out CSO with its outreach program.