ARTHUR R. UPGREN
ARTHUR R. UPGREN, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, and the former director of the Van Vleck Observatory, passed away Jan. 21, 2017, a month before his 84th birthday. He received his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University before joining Wesleyan as an assistant professor in 1966. He was director of the Van Vleck Observatory from 1973 to 1993 and held his endowed chair from 1982 until his retirement in 2000. An author or co-author of 285 publications in the astronomical literature, his research interests were in the areas of parallax (distance measurement) of stars and galactic structure. For several decades, he directed an NSF-funded study that made use of the 20-inch Clark refractor on the Wesleyan campus to establish the first rung on the ladder of distances in the Universe. His friend, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Emeritus, Jim Gutmann, said, “Art was an avid reader, loved classical music and foreign travel, and could be counted on to provide explanations of many matters astrometric and meteorological.” An active member of the International Dark-Sky Association, he was a tireless advocate for intelligent lighting on the Wesleyan campus. He is survived by his wife, Joan, his daughter and her husband, and his two grandchildren.