4 JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY FEBRUARY 1991 VOL. 6 Obituaries Peter Neil Keliher Dr. Peter Neil Keliher Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Villanova Uni- versity died tragically and unexpectedly of a heart attack on July 9th 1990 while on vacation in Freeport the Bahamas. He was 49 years old. He is survived by his wife Bonnie by their two children Mark and Claire and by two sisters Vivian and Joan. At the time of his death Peter was scuba diving with his wife Bonnie both of them highly experienced divers. Peter was a remarkable person in many regards. By birth a New Englander coming from Providence Rhode Island Peter obtained his undergraduate training at St. Michael’s College in Winooski Vermont where he graduated with an A.B. degree in 1962. For his postgraduate training Peter went in search of fresh pas- tures attending Imperial College Univer- sity of London from which he obtained MSc and DIC degrees in 1967 and a PhD in 1969 all in the field of Analytical Chemistry.While at Imperial College Peter worked on a project studying the an- alytical potential of electrogenerated chemiluminescence under the joint guid- ance of Dr. (later Professor) Gordon Kirk- bright and Dr. Bernard Fleet. The Analytical Chemistry group at Imperial College was at that time rapidly achieving prominence under the leadership of Pro- fessor T. s. West FRS and this provided Peter with the vision and opportunity which led him into an academic career. Peter considered his time at Imperial College to be one of the most formative in his life and he maintained strong bonds of professional and personal friendship both with his scientific mentors and also with many student contemporaries from that period. Peter was deeply affected by the premature death of Gordon Kirkbright in 1983 and actively worked to memorialize him through the organization of symposia in his memory and through support of the Gordon Kirkbright Bursary for UK and US postgraduate student travel.Dr. Sue Feng Zhu one of Peter’s recent students was a recipient of such an award. While at Imperial College Peter met and married his wife Bonnie (nke Boys- Korkis) the daughter of a distinguished British surgeon. Peter and Bonnie estab- lished a close caring relationship which touched all those who came into contact with them. An unanticipated addition to the marriage contract was Benjie Bonnie’s childhood horse who accom- panied them to the US and lived out his declining days in great contentment in rural Pennsylvania.Peter’s academic career was spent ex- clusively at Villanova University starting as an Assistant Professor in 1969 with promotions to Associate Professor in 1974 and full Professor in 1979. On his arrival at Villanova Peter focused his at- tention on the then rapidly developing field of atomic spectrometry and quickly established himself in this area working initially with electrodeless discharge lamps and then with the kchelle spectro- meter where he became a pioneer in its use for continuum source atomic absorp- tion spectrometry. Throughout his carreer Peter maintained a strong focus on high resolution atomic spectrometry but branched into other areas including luminescence spectrometry trace pollu- tant analysis and ICP emission spectro- metry.He published a total of 75 papers was the author of several book chapters on atomic spectrometry and co-authored the Analytical Chemistry biennial Funda- mental Review in Atomic Emission Spectrometry from 1984 to 1990. Peter’s advice was frequently sought in editorial matters. He served on the advisory board of Spectrochimica Acta Part B and the Instrumentation Advisory Panel of Ana- lytical Chemistiy. Since 1983 he hadJOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY FEBRUARY 199 I VOL. 6 5 been a member of the Editorial Board of ARAAS (Annual Reports on Analytical Atomic Spectrometry) and then the Atomic Spectrometry Updates Board of JAAS.In 1985 he became Editor of the Microchemical Journal and made significant strides during his tenure in re- directing the focus of that journal away from classical wet analysis and towards modem instrumental techniques. Peter was active in a number of profes- sional societies. He was elected treasurer of the Analytical Division of the Ameri- can Chemical Society in 1978 and served two two-year terms in this role. He also served as Alternate Counsellor of the same group. In addition he chaired several key committees of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. He had a strong commitment to strengthening profession- al activities in analytical chemistry and gave considerable service to both the Fed- eration of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) meeting and the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS).He served on the governing board of FACSS for many years as assistant Program Chairman and finally as General Chairman in 1986. As Exhibits Director of the FACSS meeting from 1981 to 1985 he was successful in strengthening the participation of the scientific instru- ment companies and so helped the meeting to re-establish its financial secu- rity. Peter served on the Governing Board of the EAS as Assistant Programme Chairman in 1987 and as Programme Chairman in 1988. Peter had close ties with a number of scientists in the People’s Republic of China was an hono- rary guest Professor at Jilin University in 1988 and served on the Programme Committee for the 1990 Analytical Chemistry Conference held in Changcun.His membership of other professional so- cieties included the American Chemical Society The Royal Society of Chemistry the Society for Applied Spectroscopy the Microchemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Throughout his professional career Peter maintained a close and affectionate relationship with all his students both undergraduate and graduate and was always very supportive of their efforts while at university and in later life. In fact one of Peter’s hallmarks and one which will be sorely missed was his strong sense of comradeship which reached ef- fortlessly across barriers of age back- ground and nationality. To have met Peter once even briefly was to be his friend for life. Peter especially enjoyed interna- tional relationships taking much pleasure in visiting friends in their countries and then returning the favour in his own home.A visit to the Keliher home was an occasion to experience wonderful hospi- tality from the whole family which also included various and sundry cats and dogs. While savouring life in many parts of the world Peter was often an astute critic when he felt something could use a little improvement. He once remarked with his strong sense of humor that he was probably one of the few people who had been told ‘if you don’t like it here why don’t you go back where you came from’ on both sides of the Atlantic! Peter Keliher was a great advocate for living life to the full. Nobody who ever met him was unaware of the fact.The many who knew him all around the world will mourn his passing and will miss his lively presence at scientific meetings. He has left his mark firmly on the world of analytical chemistry and we rejoice in the blessings which he imparted to so many lives while he was with us. Richard F. Browner Georgia lnstitute of Technology Atlanta GA USA Frans J. M. J. Maessen Dr. F. J. M. J. Maessen lecturer at the laboratory for Analytical Chemistry of the University of Amsterdam The Neth- erlands unexpectedly passed away at the age of 59 on Thursday November 8th 1990. Frans Maessen served the University since 1961. He started his career there as a technical assistant supervised by Dr. P. W. J. M. Boumans. During this time he developed an interest and expertise in atomic spectrometry.He acquired his bachelors degree in 1969 (cum laude) and his masters degree in 1970 (cum laude) and attained his PhD in 1974 on a thesis entitled ‘Some aspects of spectro- chemical trace analysis with the direct current arc ’ . Since that time he had been the project supervisor of the work on atomic spectrometry in the above mentioned in- stitute. He was an author or co-author of 57 scientific publications. He supervised nine PhD studies on topics in atomic spectrometry ranging from fundamental studies on excitation processes to statis- tical evaluation and HPLC-ICP cou- pling. He was especially known in recent years for his studies on the intro- duction of non-aqueous solutions into the ICP. He had been a member of the Editorial Board of ‘Annual Reports on Analytical Atomic Spectroscopy (ARAAS)’ since 1981 and subsequently when JAAS began publication in 1986 a conscien- tious member of the Atomic Spectrome- try Updates Board. Many scientists will remember his sound scientific work and his friendly personality. H. Poppe University of Amsterdam The Netherlands