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The Edgerton Database |
Harold Eugene Edgerton, son of Frank Eugene and Mary Nettie (Coe) Edgerton. PHOTO
Esther May Garrett, daughter of William Everett and Clara (Sharp) Garrett.
Children:
The following obituary for
Harold Eugene Edgerton was published in The
Record, Northern New Jersey on Friday, January 5, 1990: “Harold "Doc" Edgerton, a pioneer in strobe and
underwater photography and a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, died of a heart attack Thursday. He was 86.
Edgerton died at Massachusetts General Hospital after suffering a
heart attack at the MIT faculty club, where he was having lunch, MIT
said. The achievements of Edgerton spanned many decades. His revolutionary work in the use of strobe
lights captured images long hidden to the naked eye. His famous photographs of a drop of milk
splashing on a tabletop and of a bullet piercing an apple showed the world
what time looks like when it is frozen.
Edgerton's strobe lamps enabled the Allies to track enemy movements at
night during World War II. His strobes
were used to photograph the first atomic tests. His work in sonar helped locate underwater
wrecks and is used by undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau. "If it comes, it comes," Edgerton
once said of his ideas and inventions. "It'll come by inspiration and
God almighty and hit you right in the middle of the night." Edgerton, a native of Nebraska, had been at MIT since
1926, when he enrolled as a student in electrical engineering. Officially retired from MIT in 1968, he lived
in an apartment next to the campus and still came into his office five days a
week. "I got stuck," he
said. "But it's given me a very
nice place to work." Most
weekdays, Edgerton could be found in his laboratory at MIT, just off MIT's
"Strobe Alley," where his work is displayed. In addition to his inventions, Edgerton and two former
students in 1947 started a company, EG&G, specializing in electronic
technology. Now a multi-million dollar
engineering concern, the company was under contract to the military and
designed and operated systems that timed and fired U.S. nuclear bomb
tests. At a recent meeting of the
Archaeological Society of America, Edgerton offered words of advice to a
group gathered to honor his life's achievements. "Work like hell, tell everyone
everything you know, close a deal with a handshake, and have fun,"
Edgerton told the audience. He was awarded a national medal of technology by President Reagan in 1988. Undersea explorer Cousteau used some of Edgerton's sonar equipment, and the two collaborated in locating the British Army ship HMS Britannia, which was sunk by a mine off the Greek coast during World War I. Cousteau nicknamed Edgerton "Papa Flash." Also, his Edgerton-Benthos underwater camera was used to photograph the shipwreck of the Titanic when it was discovered in 1986. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Esther, a daughter and a son.” The following obituary for
Mrs. Esther May (Garrett) Edgerton was published in MIT Tech Talk on Wednesday, March 13, 2002: “Esther Edgerton, widow of ‘Doc’ Edgerton and benefactor
of the Institute, dies at 98 Esther Edgerton, widow of MIT Professor Harold E. “Doc”
Edgerton, died last Saturday (March 9) at the home of her granddaughter,
Janice Dixon Key, in Charleston, S.C., where she lived for the last four
years. She was 98 years old. An open house, hosted by Professor J. Kim Vandiver, will be held at the MIT Edgerton Center, Room
4-405, on Saturday, March 16 from 3:30 to 6 p.m. following the funeral
service at Payson Park Church in Belmont. Interment will be at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Edgerton, the former Esther May Garrett, was born in
Hamilton County, Neb. on Sept. 8, 1903. She received a bachelor’s degree in
mathematics, music and education from the University of Nebraska, also her
husband’s alma mater. A skilled
pianist and singer, she attended the New England Conservatory of Music and
taught in public schools in Aurora, Neb. and Boston. Edgerton was active in the International Chapter P.E.O. Sisterhood for 74 years. She was a member of the Payson Park Church in Belmont and the MIT Matrons. The Edgertons, longtime
residents of Belmont and Cambridge, established the Edgerton Research Vessel
at the New England Aquarium and endowed the Edgerton House dormitory and
several scholarships and chairmanships at MIT. Natives of Nebraska, they also funded the
Edgerton Explorit Center in Aurora, Neb. Along with the Germeshausens
and Griers, the Edgertons
funded the EG&G Education Center (Building 34) at MIT and Mrs. Edgerton
sponsored exhibits at Boston Museum of Science with Polly Germeshausen.
Professor Edgerton, a pioneer in strobe photography and underwater
photography, was co-founder of the electronic technology firm Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier Inc. Edgerton is survived by a son, Robert Frank Edgerton of Seattle, seven grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Professor Edgerton died in 1990. A son, William Eugene Edgerton, and a daughter, Mary Louise Edgerton Dixon, have also died.” |
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