March 30, 1998 AGU RELEASE NO. 98-07 For Immediate Release

Contact: Harvey Leifert (202) 777-7507 hleifert@agu.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dr. Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus, a leading geophysicist who invented the bathythermograph, a device for measuring the temperature of the ocean depths, died during the night of March 29-30, according to his son, A. F. Spilhaus, Jr., Executive Director of the American Geophysical Union. He was 86 and lived in Middleburg, Virginia.

Spilhaus was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and received his B.Sc. Degree from the University of Cape Town in 1931. He emigrated to the United States that same year and became a U.S. citizen in 1946. He received his master's degree from MIT in 1933 and his doctorate from Cape Town in 1948.

A futurist before the term was created, Spilhaus conceived the idea of covered skyways and tunnels connecting city buildings and allowing easy passage in inclement weather. The concept was first put into practice in Minneapolis in the 1950s, while Spilhaus was dean of the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology.

He also developed the concept of experimental cities with fixed occupancy, waste management, and state of the art communications, adopted in Sweden, Scotland, and France. He created the U.S. science exhibit at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, which endures as the Pacific Science Center. He stimulated the study of oceanography through the Sea Grant Program he proposed to President Lyndon Johnson and which was enacted into law in 1966.

Spilhaus reached out to younger generations through an illustrated feature, "Our New Age," which appeared in Sunday newspapers from 1957 to 1973. This was in addition to his 11 books, over 300 published articles, inventions such as a space clock, his pioneering oceanographic map, and sculptures demonstrating geophysical principles.

Appointed to scientific posts by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, Spilhaus was named first U.S. ambassador to UNESCO in 1954. He also served as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association, honorary trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and board member of the Year of the Ocean Foundation. He was a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Member of the Royal Society of South Africa, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Survivors, in addition to his namesake A.F. Spilhaus, Jr., of Potomac, Maryland, include his widow, Kathleen Ann Fitzgerald Spilhaus of Middleburg, a daughter, Margaret Ann Morse of Richmond, Virginia, a son, Karl Henry Spilhaus of Needham, Massachusetts, 13 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren .

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