Edgar Bright Wilson ’30 *31

BRIGHT WILSON, retired Harvard professor, worldfamous scientist, and one of our most illustrious classmates, died July 12, 1992, in his Cambridge, Mass., home, of pneumonia. He developed Parkinson's disease in the late 1970s.

For 45 years Bright taught and conducted research at Harvard, with time out for government service. He was internationally known for his pioneering theoretical work in physical chemistry, and contributed greatly to the understanding of the structure and dynamics of molecules.

Bright came to Princeton from Riverdale and Lawrenceville schools and was a member of Clio Hall and Court Club. Sophomore year he roomed with Tyler Thompson and junior year with P. D. Petrie. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and took a master's degree from Princeton, in 1931, and a Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology, in 1933. There, he worked with Linus Pauling, with whom Bright coauthored a graduate textbook.

In 1934 Bright went to Harvard as a junior fellow, and just three years later was given tenure. His last title there was Theodore William Richards Professor, Emeritus, as of July 1, 1979. During WWII he directed underwater explosive research. He was director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group in the Defense Dept, during the Korean War.

Bright's first wife, Emily, died in 1954. He is survived by his second wife, Therese; six children, Kenneth G. (winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics), David, Paul '80, Steven, Nina Cornell '79, and Anne Goldizen; and six granddaughters; to whom the Class extends its deepest sympathy.

The Class of 1930