Obituary of Gerald Lee Witt

Gerald “Jerry” Lee Witt, 84, of Portland, Oregon, died on August 7 from complications related to lymphoma. Since 2006, Jerry and his beloved wife Susan called Portland home after fulfilling careers in Washington, D.C., his in physics and electronics and hers in art and museum administration. Jerry was born in his grandparents’ bedroom in Roodhouse, IL. He took up photography at age 12, shooting pictures for his school paper and later for commercial news outlets. He enlisted in the Air Force at 17, hoping for a photography-related assignment, but the Air Force sent him to school in electrical engineering. After his service, Jerry earned a bachelor’s degree (University of Illinois,1960) and a doctorate (University of California, Berkeley, 1964), in physics, all on the GI Bill. After graduation he was awarded a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in the Paris lab of the late Nobel Laureate Pierre-Gilles de Gennes. Jerry’s lifelong commitment to knowledge-sharing and mentoring flourished on the faculties of Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and Rider University (Lawrenceville, NJ). After 13 years in academia, he took his passion for science and capacity building to a decades-long career in the federal government. As a civilian in the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Jerry provided leadership for scientific and engineering programs of national and international scope. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and in 2006 was elected a fellow, an honor conferred on fewer than one in a thousand members every year. His interest in aeronautics prompted him to join the inaugural docent class at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center, a branch of the National Air and Space Museum. In California and then in France, Jerry discovered the pleasures of wine and food, interests he enjoyed sharing with friends and colleagues throughout his life. He served for a year as president of the Society of Wine Educators. A self-taught scholar of architectural history, he had a special fondness for the trail-blazing architect Julia Morgan. Although Jerry never played an instrument, he was passionate about music of many periods and forms, but he had a particular admiration for the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. In addition to his wife, Jerry will be greatly missed by brothers Jim Witt of Brighton, IL, and George Robert Witt of Jerseyville, IL, and many loving nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends. He was pre-deceased by his parents, George and Ida Mae Witt. A tribute to Jerry will be held at The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Avenue, Portland, Oregon, on September 14, 2019, at 1 pm. Memorial gifts may be made to Friends of Physics University of California, Berkeley https://give.berkeley.edu/egiving/index.cfm?fund=F...