A memorial service for Valter Ennis Pilcher Jr., professor of physics emeritus and author of a comprehensive history of early science at Union, will be held Saturday, Feb. 6, at 2 p.m. at the Unitarian-Universalist Society, 1221 Wendell Ave., Schenectady. Pilcher died Dec. 20 at his home in the Glen Eddy in Niskayuna. He was 84.
A native of Savannah, Ga., he earned a doctorate of engineering science from North Carolina State College. He specialized in nuclear physics, doing doctoral research at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he later worked as a staff physicist. In 1956, he joined the Union College Physics Department, where he worked for 30 years. He was very involved in identifying, protecting and cataloguing Union’s collection of antique physics apparatus. Survivors include his wife, Edith (Bendow) Pilcher, two children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
In memory of Pilcher, the family suggests contributions to Special Collections at Schaffer Library or Community Hospice of Schenectady, 1411 Union Street, 12308.