John E. Gaustad *62

John died in Northampton, Mass., Oct. 18, 2024, due to complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 86.

He was born May 23, 1938, in Minneapolis. He received an A.B. from Harvard in 1959 and earned a Ph.D. in astronomy at Princeton in 1962.

Inspired by the idealism of John F. Kennedy and the idea of the Peace Corps — and having a taste for adventure — John began his career as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In his third year, John saw a military coup topple the civilian government.

The 1957 launch of Sputnik created a demand for astronomy professors and researchers, so entry into American academia was relatively easy. Beginning in 1967, John spent 15 years on the faculty at UC Berkeley, where he became a full professor and chair of the department of astronomy. He and his research team published many papers in the then-new field of observational infrared astronomy, and John co-authored the textbook Astronomy: The Cosmic Perspective.

In 1982, he took a professorship at Swarthmore, where he remained until retiring in 2000.

John is survived by his wife, Gail; daughters Maya and Carma; and five grandchildren. 

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.