OBITUARIES : Alfred B. Focke, 85; Physicist, Mudd College Educator
Alfred B. Focke, head of the scientific team that detonated the only nuclear device the United States ever set off under water and the first chairman of the physics department at Harvey Mudd College, has died en route to his brother’s funeral.
Focke was 85 and suffered an apparent heart attack Sunday on board a plane taking him to the funeral in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Focke, who held a doctorate from Caltech, was a physicist with the Navy before and after World War II and was chosen scientific director of Operation Wigwam, the project that detonated an atomic bomb under the Pacific in the mid-1950s.
In 1959, he was brought to Harvey Mudd, the Claremont college, to head the newly created physics department, which then had a staff of four.
He held the chairmanship until his retirement in 1971 but continued to direct a geophysics laboratory he had established at the school.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
