Astronomer J. Beverley Oke dies

Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, John Beverley Oke, noted for the design and construction of astronomical instruments and for his work on various astrophysical phenomena, died Tuesday, March 2, at his home in Victoria, British Columbia. He was 75.

A native of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, Oke earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Toronto in 1949 and 1950, respectively, and his doctorate from Princeton University in 1953. A Caltech faculty member from 1958 until his retirement in 1992, he also served as associate director of the Hale Observatories from 1970 to 1978.

Oke’s scientific work covered wide areas of astronomical spectroscopy, from white dwarfs to active galactic nuclei, clusters of galaxies, and supernovae. However, he is perhaps best known for devising and building unique instruments for Caltech’s Palomar Observatory and the 200-inch Hale Telescope, and later for the Keck Observatory.

His major accomplishments at Palomar include the multichannel spectrophotometer, the double spectrograph, and the 4-shooter camera, which he built with James Gunn and James Westphal. At the Keck Observatory he was the principal investigator, with Caltech astronomy professor Judith Cohen, for the low-resolution imaging spectrograph, which produced many of the 10-meter telescopes’ early successes.

In retirement, Oke continued to work at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, in Victoria, and was designing an imaging spectrometer for the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope when he died.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy; two sons; and two daughters.
•