Walter Kosonocky

[James Beletic]

                                8 November 1996

Dear colleagues,

    It is my sad duty to report that Walter Kosonocky passed away
last Saturday, 2 November of a heart attack.

    Many of us have met Walter at the Cayman CCD meetings and we
were honored to have Walter give a retrospective talk on CCD
technology at the ESO workshop dinner in early October.  As those
of you who were at Cayman last November or at ESO a few weeks ago
will remember, Walter was vibrant and full of energy, which makes
this news all the more shocking.

    I don't think Jim Janesick will mind if I include part of the
message that he sent out earlier this week.  Jim wrote:

        Shocking... a tremendous loss to CCD technology. Took Walts
        UCLA course in CCDs 20 years ago (a real pioneer). And he was
        actively writing e-mails a few weeks ago. Seemed in good health
        at Cayman. Sorry to hear this news.

In the proceedings of the ESO workshop, we are planning to put in
something special about Walter.  If you have any contribution to make,
or any ideas (whether or not you attended the workshop), please let
us know.

                                Best regards,

                                   Jim


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    James W. Beletic                         E-mail:  jbeletic at eso.org
    European Southern Observatory            Phone:   +49-89-320-06520
    Karl-Sch-Str 2, D-85748 Garching, GER    FAX:     +49-89-320-2362
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