Page 43 - 2016Spring

to heave one over the side, from up above came the voice of Walter frantically shouting, “Not yet. Not yet, we’re not sup- posed to drop the SUS charges until next Wednesday.” He was right about the day but wrong about the device. How could one not know the difference between a bomb and a hy- drophone? Ever since, we’ve been wary about letting Walter near anything other than pencils and paper.
As well known as Walter was, his wife Judith was known nearly as well. They were an extraordinary, inseparable team until her death in 2006, after 53 years of marriage. Wherever Walter went, Judy went, too. Whether abroad or in the U.S., whether for a lecture or a scientific meeting, if Walter was there, so was Judy. She opened their beautiful home in La Jolla to friends, colleagues, and students. A highlight of a Scripps visit was dinner at the Munks, always enriched with good cheer and lively conversation. As Charles Kennel, a former director of Scripps described it, “An evening in her living room was renowned as the quintessential Scripps ex- perience for students, scientists, and legions of friends from around the world.” Walter and Judith have two lovely daugh- ters, Edie and Kendall, and three grandchildren. In 2011, Walter married Mary Coakley, and she is carrying on the tradition of La Jolla hospitality. On the occasion of Walter’s 65th birthday, Roger Revelle, a former Scripps director and President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said, “Even if Walter Munk had never done any great scientific work, his life as a husband, father, and friend would still be an inspiration for the rest of us.”
For Walter, work is an avocation. At 98 he still rises early every morning excited to tackle the problem de jour. For the last few years he has been working on the generation of low-frequency ocean ambient noise by surface waves. Wal- ter still participates in JASON studies and takes a pro-active interest in the affairs of the US Navy research establishment through his Secretary of the Navy Chair. He has received every conceivable honor, from the National Medal of Sci- ence to the Kyoto Prize. He is an Honorary Fellow of the ASA. The United States Navy and The Oceanography Soci- ety established the Walter Munk Award for Distinguished Research in Oceanography Related to Sound and the Sea in his honor (Figure 6).
We and Walter’s many other colleagues have been fortu- nate to have had the opportunity to know and work with him. We take pride in knowing that Walter, a quintessen- tial gentleman, a wonderful story teller, a brilliant scientist, and a wise and generous human being and colleague, who
Figure 6. The front of the medal for the Walter Munk Award for Dis- tinguished Research in Oceanography Related to Sound and the Sea, granted jointly by the United States Navy and The Oceanography So- ciety. Walter’s wife, Judith, designed the medal.
has often claimed to have changed fields every decade, has found acoustics to be so exciting and so compelling that he has stayed with us for more than four!
Epilogue: von Storch and Hasselmann (2010) provide a fas- cinating account of Walter’s life and work that resulted from a prolonged weekend discussion with him.
Biosketches
Robert C. Spindel is the Emeritus Di- rector of the Applied Physics Labora- tory of the University of Washington and Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering. He received his bachelor’s degree from The Cooper Union, New York, in 1965 and his PhD degree from Yale University in 1971. He was a sci-
entist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1972 until 1987 when he joined the University of Washing- ton, where he served as the APL’s director until 2003. His research interests are underwater acoustics, acoustic signal processing, and acoustical oceanography. He received the Acoustical Society of America’s Silver Medal in Acoustical Oceanography in 2009.
Peter F. Worcester received a BS in engineering physics from the Univer- sity of Illinois (1968), a MS in physics from Stanford University (1969), and a PhD in oceanography from Scripps In- stitution of Oceanography, University
Spring 2016 | Acoustics Today | 41