Obituaries

Donald J. Belcher, professor emeritus in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, a civil engineer, educator and leading pioneer in the science of remote sensing, died in Papa'loa, Hawaii, Feb. 8. He was 93.

Born in Chicago on Feb. 11, 1911, he was the son of the late Ova Clarence and Helen Edson Jenks Belcher. He earned a doctorate in civil engineering from Purdue University in 1946. During this period he began a lifelong exploration of the practical engineering applications of aerial photography, a discipline that became known as aerial photographic interpretation and, more recently, as remote sensing.

Belcher joined Cornell's School of Civil Engineering in 1946, where he founded and directed the Center for Aerial Photographic Studies until his retirement in 1976. In a storied career that spanned 50 years, Belcher distinguished himself as an educator, scholar and innovator. During World War II, he served as a civilian consultant under Gen. Douglas MacArthur to improve the military's intelligence of battlefield conditions. Following the war, he used his skills in aerial photographic interpretation to locate land mines in Western Europe, and performed a wide variety of consulting assignments for U.S. military and civilian agencies and foreign governments.

As the exploration of space advanced, Belcher helped interpret surface conditions on both the moon and Mars and used air photos to identify sources of industrial pollution. At the dawn of the information age, Belcher also pioneered a computer-based land use and natural resource inventory system.

Belcher was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy Foote Belcher, and daughter Helen Stacy Belcher. He is survived by daughters Marilyn Kay (Gerald) Whisman of Goddard, Kan.; Candace Brann of Hiram, Ohio; and sons Mathew (Emily Claspell) Belcher of Kamuela, Hawaii; Mark (Anne Marie Thurber) Belcher of Washington, D.C.; and Neil (Ailish) Belcher of Ithaca. Memorial contributions may be made to the Cornell University Donald J. Belcher Master of Engineering Fellowship in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Lenore Frances Coral, adjunct professor of music and librarian for the Cox Library of Music and Dance, died of cancer March 8 at Hospicare in Ithaca. Coral was raised in Detroit and attended Cass Technical High School, where she was active playing the flute and piccolo. She went on to study at the University of Chicago, earning a B.A. in music (1961) and a master's degree in library science (1965). She continued her studies on a Fulbright Fellowship at King's College, University of London (1965-67), receiving a Ph.D. in musicology in 1974. Her career began at the University of California-Irvine in 1967, where she was the founding librarian of the fine arts collection. She then served as music librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and from 1982, as music librarian and adjunct professor of music at Cornell. Her Ph.D. dissertation began her lifelong study of British auction and sales catalogs containing musical materials, a field in which she was considered a pre-eminent expert. At the time of her death she left the nearly completed manuscript of a book, which in her last days she arranged to have finished, edited and published. Coral also will be remembered around the world for her notable contributions to scholarship in the fields of library science and musicology. At Cornell she presided over one of the finest music libraries in North America, taught a famous seminar introducing students to the arcane skills required to do original research in music and mentored generations of students. Coral is survived by her companion of many years, Anders Lönn, of Stockholm, Sweden, and her sister, Suzanne Allender of Prescott, Ariz. A memorial service will be held in Barnes Hall Auditorium on April 9 at 2:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lenore Coral Endowment for the Cornell Music Library.