Brooks alternates with Kissinger in teaching the introductory astronomy course and, when the schedule permits, also offers two additional courses, Astronomy of the Solar System and Stellar Astronomy. Brooks has been responsible for turning the little-used McKim Observatory into a student research facility and a community landmark. Monthly open house gatherings at the Observatory, inaugurated in 1982, have drawn several thousand visitors from the campus, town, and county; guests are treated to views of the moon, planets, and neighboring galaxies through the eyepiece of 9 ½-inch Clark refractor, first used by the university in August 1884. Currently, Brooks and several students are at work on the construction of a radio telescope atop the Science Center.

DeCarlo has been instrumental in reactivating the DePauw chapter of SPS and for reviving interest in the physics honor society; in the past three years, 34 students have been initiated into Sigma Pi Sigma. The physics club sponsors four or five campus colloquia each year, attends meetings of the AAPT, and organizes trips to universities and laboratories. In 1985, the physics club was honored by the National Office of SPS as one of the Outstanding Chapters in the country.

Today, the department is enjoying a renaissance after the lean years of the ‘70s. The number of students enrolled in physics courses has increased by nearly 60% in the last five years, and astronomy courses draw an additional 70-120 students each semester. Most encouraging is the fact that enrollments in upper-level courses have more than doubled in the same period. Ore students major in physics now than at any other time in the university’s history. With quantity there has come quality; many of the current junior and senior majors are DePauw Distinguished Scholars and/or members of Phi Beta Kappa.

Memories of Professor Smith were rekindled when the O.H. Smith Scholarship campaign was announced in the fall of 1984. To date, over 75 physics alumni and friends have contributed nearly $30,000 to the scholarship fund. At the spring 1986 student awards convocation, the first annual O.H. Smith prize of $1,000 was presented to junior David H. Ratliff. The presence of outstanding physics students like Ratliff, coupled with a sense of where we’ve been and where we’re going, give the department staff such good feelings about the future.

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