| Each year an outstanding physics student is selected by the faculty to work with a member of the department faculty or staff at a position which is both educational to the student and useful to the department. |  Horace L. Newkirk 1911 - 1995 | ||
| When physicist Horace L. Newkirk retired after three decades with the U.S. Navy at China Lake Naval Weapons Center, he and his wife moved to Santa Rosa to be near their daughter, Nadenia. For the remainder of his life he was a regular attendee at Sonoma State University's "What Physicists Do" series. In 1979 he gave a lecture in the series, describing how he developed a method to damp out the tumbling of one of the first American satellites in space.
A pilot, motorcyclist, and beekeeper, Horace Newkirk kept his sense of humor and enthusiasm even after a plane crash at age 78 slowed him down, and he continued coming to the lectures as long as he was able. After his death, Nadenia and other relatives and friends endowed the Newkirk Assistantship. Income from the endowment provides a stipend to the student. |
|||
