Theodore Prey Jorgensen

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.

Revered U. Nebraska physics professor dies at age 100

TMCnet