Grinnellians come in all sorts of packages. One of our most successful Grinnellians arrived on campus without even a high school diploma. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Grinnell with a mathematics degree in only three years and has flourished in exploring all of his wonderful talents. This alum went on to acquire a Ph.D. in Astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1965.

His life is dominated by an intense desire to discover and communicate new knowledge about the universe and the astronomical things that populate it. He is an accomplished explorer who performed the first site survey at Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. He worked as an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Hawaii and as the project manager of the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. Eventually the federal government rewarded his talents with scientific positions at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. He currently serves as the chief of the laboratory for astronomy and solar physics in the Senior Executive Service of the United States.

This alum is also an accomplished author and inventor. He created the Fisher-Smartt coronal photometer. He has written extensively on solar magnetic evolution and the solar corona. He has an extensive list of awards including the NASA Group Achievement Awards, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and a Technology Advancement Medal from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Of special interest was a recent Oak Leaf Laurel Award as the leader of the TRACE Mission Science Team.

An explorer feels no pleasure more than that of being the first to look at something. For this scientist, it was the birth of his son Matthew, the discovery of a new kind of solar activity, and the first look through a new instrument that had never been used before.

“It was not my intent to sail further than any man had ever sailed before, but to sail as far as I possibly could go.” The Alumni Association is proud to recognize the fantastic adventures of Richard R. Fisher, class of 1961, and wish him safe journey on the road ahead.