DON LAUTMAN, astronomer and teacher, at the age of 61, died in Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 9, 199 1, after surgery and a protracted illness. Dr. Lautman was born in Helena, Mont. He earned his bachelor's degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1953 and his doctorate in astronomy from Princeton. While a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton, he joined the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory team to track satellites. His specific responsibility was the development of mathematical procedures to analyze and predict the motions of manmade satellites. He predicted the orbits of Sputnik, the Soviet satellite, 'in 1957. In the mid 1960s, he left the Smithsonian to pursue a teaching career, which took him to several institutions, including Tufts and Northeastern. At the time of his death he was an associate of the Harvard College Observatory and an instructor in Astronomy at the Harvard Extension School, where he had taught an evening course for some 25 years. He is survived by his widow, April, three daughters, two sons, and five grandchildren. To his family and friends we extend sincere and deep sympathy.
The Graduate Alumni