Myron Plooster, a retired senior scientist with the Denver Research Institute at the University of Denver, died May 14, 2011, of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 80.
Plooster graduated from South Dakota State College in 1951. He then earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton in 1955. After Army service, he went to work for the Linde Division of Union Carbide. At Linde he received several patents and worked on the first lasers.
In 1965, he received an appointment to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., where he developed computer models for cloud modeling, and did basic research in shockwave theory relating to cloud seeding and lightning strikes. After six years, he went to the Denver Research Institute and continued his work in shockwaves and computer modeling. Except for three years with Applied Research Associates, he remained at the Denver Research Institute until he retired in 1995 as a senior scientist and Amici fellow.
Music was his avocation, and he was a gifted tenor who sang most of the major classical oratorios with symphony orchestras and local choral groups.
Plooster is survived by his wife of 55 years, Lillian, whom he married in the University Chapel; two daughters; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.