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In Memoriam: Richard F. Weeks, 1932 - 2022
Jul 11, 2022
Richard F. Weeks, Optica Fellow (1981) and recipient of the David Richardson Medal (1980) passed away in Grinnell, Iowa on 11 July 2022 at the age of 90. He was most known for heading the team at Polaroid that designed the optics for the iconic Polaroid SX-70, the world’s first folding single-lens reflex camera.
Weeks was born 1 June 1932 in Schenectady, NY where he graduated from Nott Terrace High School in 1950. He earned a BA in Physics from Princeton University in 1954 and an MA and PhD in Optics from the University of Rochester Institute of Optics in 1959.
During a long career he contributed to the Apollo space program and worked with early lasers. Before joining the Polaroid Corporation, Weeks joined the Richard D. Brew and Company, Inc. in 1959 as the director of research and was also employed at Schlumberger-Doll and Carson Laboratories. Weeks joined Polaroid in 1967 where he and his colleague, William T. Plummer, worked on the SX-70 camera. For this, they earned the Richardson Medal from Optica for distinguished contribution to applied optics in 1980. Later, NASA asked Weeks to chair a blue-ribbon panel of scientists and engineers charged with overseeing the metrology in fabricating the optics of the Chandra x-ray observatory.
Weeks was curious, independent, ingenious, and relentlessly enthusiastic—“all sail and no anchor” according to his high school yearbook. He was a skilled inventor, photographer, woodworker, boat builder and house restorer. The three great loves of his life were the former Elizabeth “Betty” Gordon, sailing, and music. Weeks and his wife sailed the coast of Maine in a series of boats until coming to Iowa to live near family in 2008.
He is survived by his wife Betty of Des Moines, Iowa; his sons, Dan (Randi) and Geoff (Karen) and his daughter Liz (Michael) Hazelmyer.
Optica and the scientific community mourn his loss.
