Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

Paid family tribute

Henry George Horak, a longtime resident of Los Alamos, NM and more recently living at The Woodmark in Albuquerque, NM, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s. He was born in Kansas City, MO on March 26, 1919, the eldest of two children of Henry Robert and Leota Horak, nee Gromer. He is survived by his wife Gertrude and three sons, Lou, Karl, and Paul, their wives, Kathleen, Carolyn, and Marcia; as well as three grandchildren, Peter Tyrone Horak, Peter Cassidy Horak, and David Cassidy Horak. Henry was a respected chess expert, a pitcher for the Denver Bears in 1940, a captain in the Eighth Air Force during World War II, and an accomplished accordionist. After the war he earned a PhD in astrophysics and under Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar from the University of Chicago specializing in radiative transfer. He taught for 17 years as a professor at the University of Kansas. A summary of his work at KU may be found at http://www.physics.ku.edu/astronomy/history/horak.html. In 1967 he moved his family to Los Alamos, NM where he worked at the national laboratory until his retirement at age 72. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in Henry’s name to the Alzheimer’s Association, 9500 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Suite 121, Albuquerque, NM 87111 or www.alzheimers.org. Please visit our online guestbook for Henry at www.RememberTheirStory.com.

This information was provided to the Journal-World as a paid tribute.