In Memory of Richard James Plano

Thank you everyone for your very kind words during this difficult time.

Sue and I have set up a Kodak Gallery with several pictures of the family from over the years. I'm away from home on business in California right now so I haven't been able to put together more images but I will add more when I get home. Please copy this link into your browser to go to the slide show:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/landingPageSwitchboard.jsp?t...

IF you have pictures you would like to add, let me know at rjplano@yahoo.com and I'll arrange to have them added.

Again, thank you for your support.

-Rob

When I think of Dad, I think of his love, while driving through a place like the Swiss Alps, of not taking the direct route, but rather finding those skinny, curvy roads on the map that take one to the remote areas high in the mountains with their beautiful views, far off the beaten track. Not always popular with those who don’t take the numerous curves too well or are leery of the steeps drops so close to the edge of the road or who just want to get to the day’s destination as soon as possible. But I always looked forward to those trips: What new things will we see today? What will we discover? He also loved getting up close to thunderstorms, driving in snow storms (to show off his skidding expertise) and getting close to big ocean waves at the coast (an indelible image I have is him being engulfed in foam on the rocks along the California coast many, many years ago), traits he has passed on to me, to the sometime consternation of Sue because my children want to follow me out into the storm.

I’ll always remember the hike Dad and I took to a climber’s hut high on the flank of the Matterhorn near Zermatt, Switzerland. The switchback trail went ever higher and the landscape ever wilder and Mom was waiting for us back in the village, but Dad and I never thought of turning back before we got to the hut. The view from the hut was well worth the effort and since that day, I’ve looked for that hut whenever I see a picture of that beautiful mountain. To this day I continue to look for other huts on other mountains to climb to, trying to recreate that feeling of me and Dad on the trail, going where we had never gone before.

Other memories include, of course, the countless hours in the basement, just “hitting a few” back and forth across the ping pong table. We continued this even after I became skilled enough to beat Dad consistently, much to his credit! We rarely kept score anyway, just enjoying the pleasure of the sport, admiring each other’s good shots and just sharing time together. I think he was always a bit disappointed I never acquired his and Mom’s passion for tennis, though. Sorry, Dad! I tried (innumerable lessons and joining the high school tennis team, for example,) but there are some things you just can’t force.

Our many walks along the Millstone Canal towpath are also etched in my memory. Dad always was easily convinced to demonstrate his Eagle Scout bona fides by starting a fire with just one match (something that would probably get us arrested there these days!), especially if it had started to rain.

Dad’s honesty and sense of fair play is probably the reason I have the sometimes annoying and inconvenient inability to tell a lie, to anyone, about anything. About the only time I saw a chink in that behavior was on a toll road in France, where an automatic toll booth was inoperative and the change basket had become full of coins from previous travelers. It was late, we were hungry, out of cash (this was the time before ATMs, if you can imagine) so Dad just made a mad grab at that change basket and sped away!

We will all miss him terribly but we will have these and countless more memories to keep his spirit with us.

Dear Louise, Linda and Robert,

I was so sorry to learn that Richard had passed away. I really both liked and admired your dad/husband. He was a really special guy. I knew him through Louise and tennis. After playing both indoor and outdoor tennis with Louise for a number of years, I was asked to join their Thursday doubles group. Wasn’t so sure how that would go as Louise told me her husband was a physics professor. I had, in my mind, an image of what a physics professor would be like. Well, Richard managed to totally destroy how I thought a physicist would probably be like. We (I) really enjoyed the games we played. His quirky ping pong type serve (yuck), could drive one crazy. He did have a really great serve when he chose to use it. I think it amused him to watch me miss it.

Richard so totally loved his wife. One day, when I was late to tennis (as usual?), he was standing upstairs and said to me: See that girl down there? He then pointed to a grey haired lady playing on the court (Louise) “Aint she Beautiful?” That’s MY wife! At that time they were probably married at least 40+ years. We often had to pause our game for Richard to take time out to give Louise a quick kiss.

That goes back to the image I used to have of a physicist---someone solely focused on a science I could not even begin to comprehend and who is rather boring. Richard had so many talents and interests. One day when I called Louise to set up a game, I heard a piano playing in the background. I asked what tape/cd was playing. She said it was Richard. So, just to see, I asked her if he could play Moonlight sonata. He did! Wow! It was concert level music. Then, she told me he played the bassoon in the NJ symphony orchestra and for Rutgers. Later, we went to see him play several times. Louise taped the performances. You could always spot Richard from a distance. He was the handsome guy with the beautiful thick white wavy hair.

I will always remember Richard tending to the glogg at their holiday parties. You both made it a really fun time. And, there were always interesting people to talk to.

Back to the image topic. No doubt I really could amuse Richard because of my lack of knowledge. But, he had a really gentle kindness. And, he was a very good teacher. I know that because I was invited to attend a RU class he gave on how the earth/universe evolved. I wish that there were more science teachers like him. He simplified complicated subjects and made them interesting. I was surprised at his patience.

Sometimes, when Louise and I went out for a little adventure, I would find him either sitting at the kitchen table with many different newspapers or watching the news on cspan. Richard was very knowledgeable on what was happening in the news and often got involved or had strong opinions on all sorts of events. So, now you see what happened to my preconceived idea of a physics professor. Richard was not only a true gentleman devoted to his wife and family, but he was kind, had a great sense of humor and so many diversified interests as well as obviously being an outstanding physicist. I will also miss him.

With love to all of your family,
Bunny van cise

I first met Dick in 1951 when we were both graduate students at the U. of Chicago. We had as our thesis advisor, Roger Hildebrand. As graduate students, we wrote our first joint physics paper in 1955 titled "Negative Pressure Isopentane Bubble Chamber." Dick and Roger Hildebrand developed the world’s first hydrogen bubble chamber. Dick did his thesis using this chamber and was the first physicist to publish a paper on the data gathered using a hydrogen bubble chamber. Dick’s accomplishment led to an explosion of work the world over advancing high energy physics with the use of hydrogen bubble chambers.

In 1956, Dick and I graduated, with Dick going to Columbia University and then on to Rutgers, and I to MIT. We kept in contact over the next 18 years coming together again writing joint physics papers from 1974 through the mid 1980's in an international consortium of universities doing high energy research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He was an original member of the International Hybrid Spectrometer Consortium that led to the large international collaborations which dominate the high energy experimental field today.

Dick was a truly talented physicist and a great data analysis expert. I and all of his collaborators from the IHSC learned many important concepts from him. In addition, he was a great person and I am proud to have had him as a true and loyal friend. I am grateful that I could visit with him and his family when he and Louise moved to Boston. This time spent with him was much too short. I will miss him dearly.

I worked with Richard in the Rutgers High Energy Physics Group from 1973 to 1976. I'll remember his energy and dedication to physics research and teaching. I was able to renew our collaboration in the 1980's in bubble chamber experiments at Fermilab. I also enjoyed keeping in touch with him and Louise through annual Christmas letters. There are two special connections between
the Jones and Plano families. Our wedding anniversaries are on the same day and my fitst child Amanda was born in New Brunswick
on Richard's birthday. I'll always remember the joint birthday party for them on 15 April 1976. Best wishes and aloha from the Jones family.

When Leonor arrived in NJ, in the summer of 2000, Dick and Louise immediately took her under their wings and introduced her to their social circle. We spent many enjoyable evenings with them, and, after one particularly delightful dinner, where wine, food and conversation ran especially freely, we felt comfortable enough to suggest that it might be fun to pool our resources and rent a villa in Tuscany. Dick immediately seized on it, pronouncing it to be "a splendid" idea, and before the night was over, we had essentially formalized our plan. Our party consisted of Louise and Dick, Janet and Joe Potenza, Paul Leath and us.

The day after our arrival and still somewhat jet-lagged, we fired up our two car caravan and headed for the nearest "big" city, Lucca which has some nice churches, a very tall clock tower with a hanging garden at the top, and some interesting Etruscan era archaeological digs. Perhaps its most attractive feature is its virtually intact ancient wall, about 5 miles in circumference and 50 meters wide, surrounding the old part of the city. After entering the city through one of its gates, Dick spotted a tourist office that had bicycles for rent. Now, it is doubtful that Dick ever met a bicycle that he didn't like, and while the rest of us demurred (it was warm and rainy) the next we knew Dick and his new conveyance were off for a spin around the wall and a promise to check in on us poor pedestrians. When we emerged from one of the churches, he was right out front, executing very tight circles (sometimes with his hands off the handlebars), and managing to impress some of the strolling tourists with his prowess.(See picture)
[NOTE: See next post for photos! - Linda]
After lunch he accompanied us to a nearby ancient church, where important Etruscan remains had been discovered below the building, which could be visited. In the nave of the church, folding chairs had been set up, and a concert grand piano was in place, obviously for some forthcoming performance. As we toured the ruins, below street level, we heard the inspiring strains of a Bach tocatta and fugue coming from the piano, where Dick had seated himself and commenced to play (See picture). The performance was almost flawless, and any onlookers must have been totally bemused by this strange tall American with the white hair who did bicycle stunts and played Bach. We, of course, were not at all surprised, and felt honored to proclaim him as "one of us". At the end of the afternoon, when Dick approached the tourist office, Dick realized that he had miscalculated the time. The office had already closed for the day, and taped to its front door was a note to "Signor Plano" in fractured italian/english, asking him to please reutrn the bike to another gate, diametrically opposite the one we were at. This brought great laughter to our whole party, and not the least to Dick, who could always laugh at his own self induced misfortunes (see picture) So, Dick left us once again and drove his bike to the new location. We waited for him to return the bike near the new location. Upon regrouping, we noticed that the other members of our party looked rather somber and when asked what was going on, they told us that they couldn't tell us because we were going to laugh too hard. Eventually, when their own laughter subsided, we were apraised of the situation and, of course that's when we broke out in waves of hysterical laughter. Dick had indeed returned his bike to a (closed) office located near the other gate, and then, realizing that he still owed money for the rental, he shoved his sole small bill--a ten euro note-- underneath a small crack in the window, failing to observe that the sign above the window indicated that it was for bus tickets--not bicycle rentals. At that point,it was about 7:00 p.m. on a Sunday evening, with no open shops nearby, and none of us had any small change, and, just as a matter of pride, "project euro retrieval" was initiated. Louise was sent to scour a neighboring park in order to find a small twig to be used to dislodge the euro note from the shelf where Dick had released it, and to spirit it back to the outside world. Well, eventually the note was retrieved, and we set off back to the villa for a leisurely dinner. It was not the end of our "interesting day with Dick", however.

After dinner, feeling the need for some dessert, we decided to go to the local gelateria in Orentano. This venerable institution serves excellent italian ice cream and also has a small bar. In the evenings, the town elders (mostly the men), sat outside sipping grappa and debating local politics and gossip. For the drive to town, our caravan split up, with Dick and his crew approaching from one end of the main village street, and us from the other. The two groups walked towards each other, with one led by Dick, striding down the very center of the street, wearing bermuda shorts, with his hand waving wildly in the air (reminding of a drum major). As we converged on the entrance to the gelateria, Dick shouted something like "viva Italia", which brought immediate applause from the old geezers out front, as we all entered the store! (see picture)

Well, that was what is was like, traveling with Dick. several years later, we joined them on another vacation trip--to Provence. Although Dick's health problems were beginning to slow him down, Louise had fractured an elbow and had to have surgery at a local hospital, and Harry's daughter in law was succumbing to a fatal cancer, Dick managed to keep upbeat and in good humor, buoying the rest of our spirits. And, of course, when the humor ran dry, there was always the (intentional) outrageous political remark which would distract us from our troubles into the late hours of the evening. Although Harry valued Dick as a colleague, he made a much significant impact on both of us through his simple friendship. We are going to miss him very much.

Dear Louise and family,
It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of your husband and father.

When I first encountered Dick he was a junior faculty member at Columbia and I was a new student hoping to be a physics major. As you might suspect I had little contact with faculty members except as teachers. I don't remember at this point, we are talking about a time nearly 60 years ago, ever having Dick as a teacher but he was certainly well known and respected amongst the undergraduate physics majors.

My first real encounter with Dick started when I began as a graduate student in Prof. Steinberger's group at Nevis. In our work with the bubble chamber, we collaborated with Dick's group at Rutgers. The analysis of the pictures from the bubble chamber required the use of computer programs and Dick was our "go to guy" when we had problems or needed improvements. I gravitated to this part of the research and thus had many fruitful discussions with Dick about how to use computers to analyze the data. Dick was widely recognized as a careful and skillful physicist who understood how to use computers in his research. In an era where computer skills were far less prevalent than today, he was essential member of the collaboration, though that was far from his only contribution to our efforts. Dick was widely recognized for his careful and thorough analyses of data.

Since Dick and his group were Rutgers and Prof. Steinberger's group was at Columbia, group meetings required that one group or the other travel to the other location. Generally Dick had to come to Nevis, but we would also travel to New Brunswick on occasion. On at least one occasion Louise prepared supper were the Nevis contingent. It must've been something special, if I remember it after all these years.

The research group that Dick founded, was well respected in the community and produced many outstanding graduates. They went on to successful careers in physics and their success is attributed to Dick's abilities both as a researcher and as a teacher.

After finishing my graduate education at Columbia I went on to the University of Chicago, the National Science Foundation and finally Fermilab. At all these steps in my career Dick was a respected colleague and sometimes collaborator. His opinions were always valued and respected. At the NSF I was privileged to provide Dick with some of the support he needed for his research. Even with funds in short supply the work that Dick did at Rutgers easily merited support from the NSF.

I am sure that you feel more acutely than I the loss of your father and husband, but I will miss him too. He was a fine man who deserved better in the last years of his life. May you find comfort and joy in your memories.

Sincerely,
Norman Gelfand

Dick Plano was a dear friend, colleague, and travel companion and is missed very much.

My first interaction with Dick was when I first arrived at Rutgers in 1967 as a theorist in physics and needed to use his PDP computer for my research calculations. Dick had acquired this computer for his huge bubble-chamber analysis operation, but
had generously allowed us to use it for our calculations. It was my first experience with a computer that didn't have punched-card input. So Dick very much enjoyed showing
us how to use his DEC-tape input, with output on magnetic tapes and printouts, and personally helping us when things broke down or crashed, which seemed to be rather often with the DEC-tape reader. Also, I remember his delight in discovering and showing us that the various models of hand-held electronic calculators, from cheapest, simple arithmetic devices to the most-expensive, programmable ones of that same company, were really all the same inside, but just had different buttons on the face. When Dick made a discovery or a great little accomplishment, he had this way of sticking out his chest, with a big smile on his face, a posture that I always called plano-convex.

It was Dick and Allen Robbins that convinced me, back in the 80's, to come play doubles tennis regularly (at 7:30 AM) with their "Professors" group at the East Brunswick Racquet Club. As a result, this has thus been one of my primary and enjoyable, and continuing forms of exercise for decades. Indeed Dick was for many, many years the monthly scheduler of our doubles play each month. Actually, I believe. especially in later years, that Louise also played a major role in the grueling, and non-enviable task of working out who was to play whom each day in each monthly schedule. Anyway, Dick was most proud each month of the schedule he had put together so well. And after tennis each morning, we were often regaled by Dick's tales
or lessons on topics as diverse as the old days of particle-physics research, the structure
of the universe, how bicycles work (repeatedly), to, of course, the latest national politics. Dick, despite his liberal leanings, always, it seems, listened to the likes of Paul Harvey, and Rush Limbaugh on the radio to hear the rantings of the other side. He felt
intensely about political issues, especially when they impinged upon science, as in global warming.

However, my most cherished experiences with Dick were as a wonderful and entertaining travel companion, with Louise, my wife Rosemary and myself. We had many, memorable trips together. Harry has already mentioned above the wonderful Tuscany trip. But no doubt our most unforgettable time was the trip and cruise the four of us took to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia over the New Year's time of Y2K. We had native luau (with fireworks, roasted pig and breadfruit) on Tahiti on that New Year's Eve at the home of Nick Rutgers and his wife, the daughter of James Norman Hall, the coauthor of Mutiny on the Bounty. We attended the America's Cup Race in Auckland, New Zealand, cruised all around New Zealand, saw a duck-billed platypus in the wild in Tasmania, attend the 200) Australian Open in Melbourne, went to an opera (Die Fledermaus) in the Sidney Opera House, and marvelled at Dick's daring as he climbed the Sydney Harbor bridge.

Then there was our visit to Dick and Louise in their wonderful summer apartment in Cassis, in the Soth of France. We played mixed doubles-tennis with them there. It seems rare to find two couples that can play competitive doubles-tennis together, as we did. We also had a marvelous swim in the Mediteranean, diving from the Calanques there, and had moule frites and seafood in the wonderful restaurants along the Cassis harbor. Also they drove us to many of the wonderful sites of provence, of course.

We also had a great cruise on the Baltic from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg and back, spent a wonderful week along the shore in Nags head, NC, among other trips. And, for years, we had joint season tickets to the George Street Playhouse, before each performance of which, we had wonderful meals in virtually every restaurant in New Brunswick. And, of course, we shared many meals together at our homes, including the famous glogg cermony each year.

Dick was always great fun. He always had the curiosity and playfulness of a teenager. He also loved very much his teaching, especially his lecture demonstrations. This love was so great that, long after he retired, he voluteered to teach courses for RUALL,
where each term he would design a special course on such a topic as energy policy, the Big Bang, or science and religion.

He loved Louise very much. And she took very good care of him. We shall all miss him very much.

We were very sad to hear of Dick's illness and recent passing. We met Dick and Louise through tennis, nearly twenty years ago. Dick really enjoyed spinning the ball and Louise would skip around like a teenager. We were all living in Maryland at the time while Dick was on sabbatical. It was fun getting together and hearing about their experiences in France -talk about a year in Provence! Louise let on about Dick's misadventures with the car on various hills which necessitated trips to the garage which did not always work out well either. Dick had yearnings for homes wherever he went and would have bought a lot of real estate if Louise had not kept an eye on him. He was particularly fond of his hot tub in Germantown, MD and wanted to keep that house when they moved back to NJ.
We visited them in NJ whenever Alan had a meeting at nearby Piscataway. Louise would take me touring and then we would all meet up for dinner at their house.
We admired Dick's passion for music. He taught himself the bassoon and rapidly got promoted. We went to several concerts in MD. Another passion as has been mentioned, was his interest in discussion on every subject. Evenings with Dick were never dull. He had a zest for life which added spice to ours too.