Retirements

• Dr. Howard L. Cohen
  
• Mr. Wesley B. Greenman
  
• Dr. George R. Lebo
  
• Dr. John P. Oliver
  

Dr. Howard L. Cohen

Howard Cohen came to UF in 1968 after receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, his PhD from Indiana University and spending time as a visiting astronomer at Lowell Observatory. His initial appointment was in the University College and he became a member of the Dept. of Astronomy upon its creation in 1979. Howard received Graduate Research Awards in 1970 and 1980. He pioneered techniques for searching for comets with the GEODSS telescopes that are now used in the search for NEA's. He is the author of a number of refereed publications, mostly on observations and analysis of binary stars and he and Dr. Oliver coauthored several popular papers for Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazines. For a number of years, Howard nearly single-handedly promoted the concept of a planetarium for Gainesville, a dream that may now become a reality with the imminent acquisition of a projector for Santa Fe Community College. Howard has long been active in a number of outreach activities, especially with local astronomy organizations. He helped found the Florida Astronomical Society and the Alachua Astronomy Club.

One of Howard's avocations has been traveling to solar eclipses and we have chosen to commemorate his more than thirty-five years of service to UF with photographs of him at the 1984 annular solar eclipse near Greenville, South Carolina.

Mr. Wesley B. Greenman

Wes Greenman came to UF in 1958 and earned his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering in 1963. After a year at Channel 5 as an engineer he went to work for AG Smith on the NSF grant. By 1968 his job title read "Chief Engineer of the Radio Observatory". Over the years more duties were added (none ever get deleted I think) and today Wes has become "chief cook and bottle washer" responsible for engineering activities at Rosemary Hill Observatory and the Campus Teaching Observatory as well as supervising the many moves and room renovations around the department. Few if any of the members of the department have not benefited from Wes' activities in this area, especially those with offices on the 3rd or 4th floors or classes in the basement.

Since Wes' primary responsibility for many years was the antennas of the radio observatories, we have put together two images of him, one with the "TeePee"s out in the field and one with Tom Carr, AG Smith in front of the radio observatory building. Thanks, Wes for nearly forty years of service to the program. I honestly do not know how we will survive without you.

Dr. George R. Lebo

George Lebo came to UF department of Physics and Astronomy in 1960 with a BA from Wheaton College and an MS from U. Illinois. He initially started research on electron microscopy optics but soon switched to working with A G Smith and Tom Carr on Jupiter radio emissions. He got his PhD in 1964 and stayed with the department and AG, first as a postdoc and then becoming an assistant professor in 1965. He is coauthor of a series of papers on planetary radio emissions, most recently the 1997 paper by Higgins, Carr, Reyes, Greenman, and Lebo "A Redefinition of Jupiter's Rotation Period".

Dr. Lebo has been involved in a number of service and entrepreneurial activities over the years. He has been a NASA Faculty Research Fellow or Space Grant Fellow every year since 1991. He has served as Vice-President and Treasurer, President, and Chairman of the Board of the Pacemaker Diagnostic Clinic, Vice-President of Biomega Inc., President of Nutri-Products Inc. (who can forget the stocks of Gator Go he provided us), and Director of Phoenix Advanced Technology.

Along the way Dr. Lebo has been willing to roll up his sleeves and pitch in to help with various departmental projects so we thought a suitable momento of 40 years of service would be this photograph of him helping unload the segments of the 30 inch dome at Rosemary Hill Observatory (RHO).

Dr. John P. Oliver