Peter John Arthur Gaposchkin (1940–2014)

Reprinted with permission from Berkeleyside.

Peter John Arthur Gaposchkin, a retired astrophysicist, database specialist, and programmer analyst, died Sept. 30^th in Berkeley. He was 74.

Peter’s outgoing nature and interest in helping others made him many friends who were supportive in his last months after a debilitating accident. Peter had been hit by a car when crossing the street. He leaves behind his sister and brother Katherine Haramundanis and Edward Gaposchkin. He is sorely missed.

Peter completed his undergraduate work at MIT and his PhD at UB Berkeley. In his long career, Peter had worked at NRAO, Green Bank, WV; Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, CA; NAVPRO, Sunnyvale, CA; Fleet Num Ocean Center, Monterey, CA; Informatics, Palo Alto CA; and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He has also taught at Merritt College in Oakland and San Francisco Community College. Listed in Who’s Who in the World, he was active in local community groups including Experience Unlimited, Oakland; University Ave Consumers Coop, Berkeley; Shattuck Av. Consumers Coop of Berkeley; and the Oakland Toastmasters as participant and mentor. He was active in Berkeley Friends Meeting where he served on the Peace and Social Order Committee working on social justice and environmental issues. Peter attended many Berkeley City Council and Commission meetings and often communicated with legislators by email.

He retained a long term interest in ham radio, enjoyed Go at the SF and Berkeley Go Clubs, published brief articles on fairness in baseball pitching, and was a member of the American Mathematical Society, AAAS, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Association of Computing Machinery, Math Association, Sigma Xi, and the American Astronomical Society.

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