John S. Rigden died in St. Louis on 24 November 2017. John was born 10 January 1934 in Painseville, Ohio. He received his BS degree from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts, his PhD from John Hopkins University, and completed a postdoc fellowship at Harvard University. He was on the faculty at Eastern Nazarene College, Middlebury College, the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and Washington University in St. Louis. He was editor of the American Journal of Physics from 1975 to 1985. John was director of physics programs at the American Institute of Physics from 1987 to 2002. He was cofounder and coeditor of Physics in Perspective from 1999 to 2010. He was the author of six books, including Physics and the Sound of Music; Rabi, Scientist & Citizen; Hydrogen, the Essential Element; and Einstein 1905.
In 2008 John was awarded the prestigious Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics. The award read, “For a lifetime of enlightenment of physicists and the public. As a teacher, researcher, scholar, writer and editor, he has been an Ambassador of good will for the physics community par excellence. Through his five books, 100+ editorials, 100+ public lectures and significant community service, he has interpreted and communicated to diverse audiences.”
There were a number of themes that ran through John’s life. He felt very strongly that the introductory physics sequence used throughout this country needed to be dramatically revised to include much more modern physics and much less Newtonian physics. John was always enthusiastic about the most recent discoveries in physics, and he felt that this enthusiasm needed to be transmitted not only to the next generation of scientist and engineers, but also to the lay public. It was this goal that was behind the topics and accessibility of a number of his books and so many of his lectures.
John was an enthusiastic supporter of physicists doing fundamental research on big problems. He was convinced that the public as well as its governmental leaders would support physics if they were aware of the significance, difficulty, and challenge of tackling major questions of our understanding of the universe. And he devoted a significant portion of his time giving numerous talks to both physics and lay audiences to achieve that goal.
John felt that physicists should be active in the nation’s political debates. It is not by chance that the two biographies John wrote, Rabi, Scientist & Citizen and Einstein 1905, were about physicists who were involved in major government decisions. John held very strong political positions, and he was not shy about sharing them with anyone he met.
On the personal side, John was a wonderful colleague—a mentor to me as well as a friend and a member of our regular lunch get-togethers. He is survived by his loving wife of 32 years, Diana, his first wife Dorothy, six children, 19 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. He will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.
