Sherman King Poultney

Sherman K. Poultney, a physicist and writer, died on 9 February 2023 at age 85 in Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Born to George and Ruth Poultney in 1937, Sherman grew up in Leominster, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1958 and earned his PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1962. He served in the US Army Signal Corps from 1962 to 1964.

In 1964 Sherman became an assistant professor of physics at the University of Maryland in College Park. He led the electro-optics team that placed a laser ranging reflector on the Moon via the astronauts of the Apollo 11 flight in 1969. The lunar ranging ground station achieved the first laser range measurement to the Moon. He designed and built the array of retroreflectors used in the reflector, which is still in use by scientists worldwide.

Beginning in 1975, Sherman worked as a senior scientist with Perkin Elmer Corp in Wilton, Connecticut. While at Perkin Elmer, he assembled the first Fourier-transform spectrometer, the first heterodyne spectrometer, and the first tunable diode laser spectrometer. He helped write a proposal for and built a Fraunhofer line discriminator for earth resource sensing. He also developed concepts and designs for an optical pressure altitude sensor for aircraft that led to a number of patent disclosures.

In 1987 Hughes Danbury Optical Systems acquired Perkin Elmer Optical Systems in Danbury, Connecticut. There Sherman was a system engineer for optical and spectrometric sensor systems; the focal point for independent research and development for advanced sensors; and the manager for a visible imager project for the Strategic Defense Initiative Boost Surveillance and Tracking System space program.

In 1996 Sherman left Hughes and joined SFAM/IPEC (Integrated Process Equipment Corp) in Danbury. The company provided vacuum systems that fabricated silicon wafers used as a base in the printing of semiconductor chips and circuits in the chemical mechanical planarization market. He was a system engineer and manager of systems and algorithms where he developed requirements and system architecture for plasma shaping cluster tools ad metrology stations.

In 1999 he was a consulting engineer for ASML/Silicon Valley Group, a semiconductor equipment company in Wilton, Connecticut, that provided the projecting equipment that is used to fabricate microcircuits on silicon wafers. This equipment was originally developed for DARPA by Perkin Elmer. Sherman helped develop product requirements, concepts, architecture, and functional subsystems for semiconductor wafer surface metrology and surface shaping.

From 2004 to 2007, he created and taught an upper-level electrical engineering course and a fiber-optic communication systems course with laboratory at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

During his professional career, he received numerous commendations for excellence and contributions to science.

Sherman was outwardly a quiet, modest man, but inwardly he had a probing mind that sought the bigger questions that only physics could attempt to answer: Where did we come from? How did the universe come about? He was known for his brilliant mind and keen sense of humor. From college on, he wrote hundreds of poems and self-published 17 books of poetry, plays, and stories. He had a deep conviction about the importance of equality and justice and was a lifelong supporter of those causes. He was also known for his eclectic range of interests, which included geology, classical music, opera, painting, photography, and world traveling. He was an enthusiastic hiker and skier, particularly in the mountains of New England. He built a clavichord from scratch, which he then played.

In 1966 he married Joan McGuire, and they had a son, Christopher, in 1970. That marriage ended in 1986. In 1993 he married JoAnn Overton, who also had one son, David. They lived in Wilton for 20 years before retiring to North Carolina in 2012.

He will forever be remembered for his integrity, his devotion to the discipline of science, his love of poetry, and the loving care of his family.

He is survived by his wife JoAnn; son Christopher (wife Madrid and daughter Ruth); step-son David Isaacs (wife Nalli); sister Karen Eschrich (husband Glenn); sisters-in-law (Sally and Judy) of two deceased brothers; and several nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life service was held 11 March 2023 at Galloway Ridge at Fearrington, Pittsboro, North Carolina.

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