Obituary

Edward W. Hart, former professor emeritus of mechanics and materials science at Cornell, died in Lancaster, Pa., on Dec. 22.

Hart, of Ithaca and Schenectady, N.Y., was born in Easton, Pa., in 1918, son of the late Abraham Hart and Sarah Rosenstrach. He was a graduate of Townsend Harris Hall in New York City and The City College of New York and received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley.

Hart was a theoretical and experimental physicist. During World War II, he worked for the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C., and then in San Diego. He invented magnetic compass correctors and a better ship compass, for which he earned the Navy's Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He then spent 25 years at the General Electric Research Laboratory (later Corporate Research and Development) in Schenectady, where he developed the tensile test theory. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1976.

Hart was a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the Metallurgical Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award by West Germany in 1982, and in 1989 he conducted research at the Nuclear Research Center in Karlsruhe, Germany.

A Renaissance man, Hart was as dedicated to the arts as to the sciences. As a young man, he studied composition under composer Aaron Copland. He played guitar, viola and piano, and he directed a choir and a chorus. He studied modern dance with Welland Lathrop and was a founder and president of the Schenectady Civic Ballet Company from 1960 to 1963. A long-time member of the Adirondack Mountain Club, he loved nature, mountain climbing and camping.

A private memorial service was scheduled. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601, or the Adirondack Mountain Club, 814 Goggins Road, Lake George, NY 12845.