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Robert S. Allgaier passed away peacefully on January 9, 2016, from complications due to a fall on the previous Monday. His wife, daughter and son spent most of the week trying to comfort him at Suburban Hospital ICU, and at the end at the Casey House of Montgomery County Hospice. He died with his family sitting by his side holding his hands. He is now at peace.
He was born November 29, 1925 in Union City, NJ. He was Valedictorian of his high school class, and served in the U.S. Merchant Marine as a Radio Officer during World War II. He attended Columbia University for undergrad and master's degrees in Physics, and later got his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Maryland. He had a long career as a research physicist for the Navy, and published extensively, with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, then the Naval Surface Warfare Center. He was a scientist at the Cavendish Lab, Cambridge University, England for a year in the 1960s, where he worked with Sir Nevill Mott, and contributed to his research for which he later received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
He was a member of the Cosmos Club in the 1980s, but resigned over their policy of not admitting women.
After he formally retired, he worked at various places that he found interesting, including the Office of Naval Research, the National Institute for Standards & Technology, teaching at the University of Maryland, and as a professor for a semester at J. Kepler University, in Linz, Austria.
He was passionate about his time with the Merchant Marine, and worked hard to successfully get them recognized as veteran status. He was invited to the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, in 2004, for his work on the inclusion of the Merchant Marines in the Memorial.
His later years were spent traveling, hiking, reading, and listening to opera & classical music. He had a great intellectual curiosity and traveled throughout the world, other strong loves included railroads and ships.
He and his wife celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary in September of last year, and celebrated his 90th birthday with close friends and family last November.
He was the kindest, most open-minded, humble, and smartest man his family has ever known, and he had a wonderful sense of humor!