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<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;">I don't believe the VLBI, GPS and SLR
communities have been told of the sad loss of our Maser
Wizard, Harry Peters.<br>
</p>
<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;">I first encountered Harry soon after
my arrival at NASA/GSFC in 1968. Harry was working for Bob
Coates, developing masers for the NASA Tracking Networks; I
persuaded Harry and Bob that VLBI was a new tool of of radio
astronomy that really needed maser clocks. As a result,
Harry's first 4 masers (NP-1 thru -4) were soon residing at
telescopes in the US and Sweden. The NP design was updated to
the newer NR series by Harry and Vic Reinhardt just before
Harry's retirement and a batch of 16 were fabricated. A number
of our VLBI stations still use the NRs as well as Harry's
newer Sigma Tau masers built by Harry's entrepreneurial
Alabama firm.<br>
</p>
<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;">VLBI owes a great debt to Harry and I
am sorry to have lost a friend!<br>
</p>
<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;">Tom Clark<br>
</p>
<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;">---------------------------------------------------<br>
</p>
<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;">The following eulogy (which fails to
even mention VLBI!) is taken from IEEE UFFC web site: <br>
</p>
<p class="breadcrumbs" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom:
0.2em; font-size: 9px;"><a
href="http://www.ieee-uffc.org/frequency_control/index.asp"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Frequency_Control</a> > <a
href="http://www.ieee-uffc.org/frequency_control/memoria.asp"
style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">In
Memoria</a> > <a
href="http://www.ieee-uffc.org/frequency_control/memoria.asp?name=peters">Peters</a></p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;"><img
src="cid:part1.07070900.06010309@verizon.net" style="margin:
5px;" align="right"></p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;"><b>Harry
Peters</b>, Hydrogen Maser Expert</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">Harry Edward
Peters, 87, died May 19, 2010 at the Hospice of West Alabama.
Harry was an accomplished researcher, scientist, craftsman,
and business owner and operator. Harry spent his youth in
Rochester, MN, graduating from High School in 1941. He served
in the United States Navy through both the Second World War
and Korean Conflict with the rank of Chief Petty Officer
before leaving the military with an honorable discharge.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">Harry then
went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering
Physics from the University of Washington, graduating Magna
Cum Laude and entering the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">His passion
was for Hydrogen Masers from the very beginning, working with
such notables as Dan Kleppner, Howard Berg, Stuart Crampton,
Norman Ramsey and others. His early product-development career
was at Varian Associates,(Beverly, MA) with Bob Vessot and
Jacque Vanier and many others at Varian. Harry moved to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at
Goddard ultimately guiding a program essential to tracking and
timing for manned moon missions and deep space planetary
probes. He continually worked on making the H-maser an
ultra-stable, reliable frequency standard for a variety of
field applications. He authored an array of papers on H-masers
and received numerous awards.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">Retiring from
NASA in 1975, Harry moved to Tuscaloosa, Al and a couple of
years later started Sigma Tau Standards Corporation, a
research and development firm dedicated to production of time
and frequency standards. Under his leadership, Sigma Tau
perfected experimental designs for extremely precise and
stable clocks based on hydrogen.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">Several words
describe working with Harry, but one described it best. He was
‘PROLIFIC.’ He was a product of by-gone days when every
mechanical drawing was handmade. Every part handcrafted. And
there were thousands of hand drawings and crafted parts (the
archive at just NIST proves it). The numerous drawings leave a
deep, favorable and lasting impression on anyone in this
field.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">Another word
to describe Harry would be ‘PERSISTENCE.’ Above many other
attributes, Harry succeeded in bringing the exceptional
stability of the H-maser to commercial availability through
Sigma Tau Corporation essentially with his own personal
investment. While it’s one thing to be involved in the
development of a new and intricate technology, it is quite
another to risk a business and reputation to manufacture,
deliver, and support that technology. Harry persisted. His
designs evolved into what many regard as the first
field-operational masers that were commercially available to
government organizations, measurement institutes, and research
laboratories.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">He made his
maser as small as possible, his being in the ‘full-size’
category (using a TE011 mode rf cavity). Key to success of the
Sigma Tau maser was refinement of an innovative auto tuner to
minimize frequency drift. Essential to national and
international time measurement, Global Navigation Satellite
Systems like GPS, and other high technology navigation
systems, these clocks are recognized as the most stable ever
manufactured. It was so much more stable and reliable than
other frequency standards that its modest size became a
non-issue. On that point, Harry wanted his H-masers to appear
smaller to the point that he photographed his prototype
alongside the tallest secretary he could find.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">Those of us
who new Harry Peters are saddened by his passing. We pay
homage to our friend and colleague, while reveling in his
enormous contributions.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.2em;">EULOGY TO
HARRY PETERS by David Howe, NIST, at the IEEE International
Frequency Control Symposium, 2 June 2010.</p>
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