Hurd C. Willett ’24

OUR CLASSMATE Hurd Willett, who died Mar. 26, 1992, was a world famous meteorologist. After graduation from Princeton, he earned a doctorate in meteorology from George Washington Univ., after which he won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study polar form theories in Norway. He taught at M.I.T. for 39 years and continued as a researcher until 1988.

He devised the fiveday forecasting system that the U.S. Weather Bureau adopted in 1939 and still uses, in a more sophisticated form. He was especially known for predicting the impact of sunspot activity, or solar flare storms, on Earth's weather pattern over 20year cycles. His work included the flow of jet streams that pilots had discovered at high altitudes. lie made many startlingly accurate predictions. Nearly 40 years in advance, he forecast that increasing rains in the 1980s would raise the Great Salt Lake in Utah, flooding the surrounding land. He urged Midwestern farmers to persevere through the drought in the 1950s, because 20 bountiful seasons would follow. He assured insurance executives, in 1956, that a streak of violent and costly hurricanes would taper off by 1960.

He is survived by his widow, Dorothy; three sons, Allen B., Stephen C., and David H.; two daughters, Joyce W. Bradley and Emily W. Ranck; a brother Edward F.; and seven grandchildren.

To them we extend our sympathy.

The Class of 1924