Grant R. Fowles (1919–2018)

[excerpted from obituary]
Grant attended the University of Utah, earning a BS in physics in 1942. After graduation Grant joined the Navy in World War II as a radar countermeasure officer, and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific. While in the British Isles, Grant installed newly developed radar jamming devices in ships that participated in the Normandy invasion. After the war Grant studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his PhD in 1950, specializing in optics. Soon after graduation he joined the Physics Department at the University of Utah, where he was one of five faculty members. He enjoyed both teaching and research, and was one of the first scientists in the country working on what was to become known as the laser. In 1954 he discovered the second known visible light laser, and was instrumental in leading the department in becoming one of the top-ten laser research institutions in the country. During his tenure at the University, he served as an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physics and wrote several textbooks, including Introduction to Modem Optics, and Analytical Mechanics. Both are still in print and still used in classrooms throughout the world. Grant especially enjoyed teaching astronomy classes.