Ernest Ronald Fuchs (1932-2013)
FUCHS, HERREN, EDWARDS, KIM, HOKANSON
Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 7/5/2013 at 19:45:02
From Grandon Funeral and Cremation Care obituary, Ames, Story County, Iowa:
Ernest Ronald Fuchs
January 27, 1932 - November 10, 2012Ronald Fuchs, beloved husband, father, father-in-law, and grandfather, died Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012 of plasmacytoma at home with family in Ames.
A memorial service will be held at 4 pm Sunday, April 14, 2013 at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Ames, 1015 N. Hyland Ave., Ames, with supper following.
Ron was born Jan. 27, 1932 in Los Angeles, Calif., the only child of Swiss-born Ernest Fuchs and Hanna Berta (Herren) Fuchs, and named Ernest Ronald Fuchs.
He focused early in life on two areas in which he was interested and talented, music and science. This was partly because he developed asthma as an infant, which he did not outgrow until age 16. By 1950 when Ron was chosen as one of 40 Westinghouse Science Talent finalists and graduated from John Muir College, Lower Division (high school), Pasadena, Calif., he planned to study for a career in physics research.
He attended Caltech on a full scholarship and graduated as top man in his class with a B.S. in physics in 1954.
He then studied physics in graduate school at the University of Illinois on a National Science Foundation Fellowship where he earned his M.S. in 1955 and his Ph.D. in 1957. In 1957 -1958, he did post-doctoral work as a Fulbright Scholar with a National Science Foundation Fellowship at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart, Germany. In 1958-1961 he did further post-doctoral work at the MIT Laboratory for Insulation Research in Cambridge, Mass.
Ron joined the ISU Department of Physics and Astronomy as an assistant professor in 1961. His field of study was the theory of how light affects condensed matter.
At ISU he was promoted to associate professor in 1966, to full professor in 1974, and retired in 1996 as Professor Emeritus.
One of the high points of Ron's time at ISU was being "the first in the world to discover the surface modes of cubes and which ones were excited when exposed to a uniform electric field".
During the 35 years he was employed at ISU, Ron taught at least 50 classes and guided the research of 3 Ph.D. students, 2 M.S. students, 4 summer trainees, 2 honors program projects, and 3 senior research projects. He was on the graduate student committees of 70 Physics Majors and 27 Non-Physics Majors.
He published at least 50 refereed papers, for 10 of which he was the only author, 7 non-refereed papers, and chapters in at least 2 books. He gave at least 48 talks and presented at least 36 contributed papers, about 1 per year, probably given at the March American Physical Society meetings which he loved to attend.
Ron felt lucky his work at ISU gave him many opportunities to travel. When his children were young, he participated at least three times in the Summer Program sponsored by the Aspen Center for Physics. He attended several Gordon Conferences. He was also able to arrange two year-long faculty improvement leaves to Germany, the first in 1973-1974 to the Max Planck Institut of Festkoerperforschung in Stuttgart and the second in 1986-1987 to the Freie Universitaet Berlin and the Fritz-Haber-Institut in Berlin, as well as a year-long Overseas Fellowship to the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge UK in 1996-1997. In addition, he made at least 5 shorter trips to Mexico, 3 to Chile, 2 to Italy, and 1 each to Russia Spain, and Hong Kong. Some of those with whom he worked came to study at ISU and several became close friends.
He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi, and the scientific research honor society, Sigma Xi.
After retirement Ron continued to go to his office as long as his health permitted.
In 2007, Ron was honored by a conference held in Puebla, Mexico to recognize his "contributions to nonlocal optics and optical properties of small particles and to his fruitful collaborations with latin American physicists".
In 2009, Ron was given an American Physical Society award for being an outstanding referee.
In addition to physics, Ron loved his family, classical music, the outdoors, physical activities like mountain climbing, back-packing, jogging (he ran 3 marathons), bicycling, and dancing, as well as making things with his hands like a swing set attached creatively at one end to a tree.
He was very supportive of others. Ron sang with the Ames Choral Society and participated in ACTORS when he first came to Ames, was a member of the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Ames for over 50 years, played with the Squaw Creek Recorder Ensemble for about 35 years until a few months before he died, created and maintained the website of what became the Central Iowa Branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society for over 20 years (last updated June 27, 2012), played 2nd violin with his daughter in the Central Iowa Symphony for at least 15 years through May 1, 2011, played with the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin for at least 5 summers, the last being 2009, and served on the Ames-ISU Bikeway Committee until it disbanded in 2002.
His great depth of kindness and caring could be seen in the gentle way he played with his grandchildren.
Ron's determination to remain as healthy as possible and live life to its fullest despite cancer is an example to all of us.
We are very grateful to friends and WesleyLife Hospice nurses for help and advice during Ron's last weeks.
He is greatly missed by family and friends.
Ron is survived by his wife of 49 years, Carol "Holly" Edwards Fuchs, of Ames; his son, Alan Edwards Fuchs (Catherine Soyoung Kim), of Needham, Mass.; his daughter, Erica Bates Fuchs (Paul Kenneth Hokanson), of Ames; his grandchildren, Cal Hokanson-Fuchs of Ames, Sarah Dahi Fuchs and Emma Jihae Fuchs, of Needham, Mass., as well as cousins in Switzerland and France.
He was preceded in death by his parents.
Memorials may be directed to the Central Iowa Symphony to endow "the Ron Fuchs named chair" or to the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Ames.
Condolences may be sent to: www.grandonfuneralandcremationcare.com.
http://www.grandonfuneralandcremationcare.com/
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