Obituary of Harry Edward Peters

Harry Edward Peters, 87, died May 19, 2010 at the Hospice of West Alabama. He is survived by his wife, Aileen Peters; son, Larry Peters; daughter, Kaylene Peters; granddaughter, Natalia Valenzuela; sister, Geraldine Strom; Brother, John Tharpe, and a host of nieces and nephews.

Harry spent his youth in Rochester, MN, graduating from High School in 1941. He served in the United States Navy through both the Second World War and Korean Conflict, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer before leaving the military with an honorable discharge.

Harry earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Washington. (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.) After working at a series of high technology research laboratories, he moved to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ultimately guiding a program essential to tracking and timing for manned moon missions and deep space planetary probes.

Retiring from NASA in 1975, Harry moved to Tuscaloosa, Al and started Sigma Tau Standards Corporation, a research and development firm dedicated to production of time and frequency standards. Under his leadership, Sigma Tau perfected experimental designs for extremely precise and stable clocks based on the hydrogen atom. These designs evolved into the first field operational devices commercially available to government organizations and research laboratories. Key to this success was development of an innovative auto tuner to minimize frequency drift.

Essential to national and international time measurement, the United States Global Positioning System (GPS) and other high technology navigation systems, these clocks are recognized as the most stable ever produced.