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Physics Professor Al Bartlett: 1923-2013

In 1944 al bartlett hitchhiked to “a place in New Mexico” after hearing it was hiring physics majors. 

Upon arrival he found himself working alongside physicist Robert Oppenheimer on atomic weapons in what would be known as the Manhattan Project. He eventually left to pursue a Harvard doctorate before accepting a physics professor position at ����������-Boulder in 1950. Standing 6 foot 4 inches, he took the campus by storm, spending six decades here.

Bartlett died Sept. 7 in Boulder at the age of 90. 

Conscientious, kind and visionary, he led by example, deeply committed to the student and faculty experience. He won teaching awards, calmed agitated student protestors during the 1970s and co-designed physics halls to include innovative rotating stages. The halls allowed professors to set up scientific demonstrations while others were teaching class. 

He helped Boulder become the first in the nation to approve a tax to buy and maintain open space in 1967. To date, roughly $200 million has been spent on land, and Boulder is a national model. 

“We had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get a fully funded open space program, so we dropped every single nonessential activity and campaigned day and night,” Bartlett recalled in 2009.

Carrying around his worn brown leather satchel, he spent the second half of his life educating audiences about population growth and energy consumption. He gave his legendary lecture 1,741 times in 49 states and seven countries. Before he died, he worked with the ���������� Environmental Center to ensure volunteers would be trained to give his lecture. 

He and his wife Eleanor Bartlett were married more than 60 years and raised four daughters. Several years ago, he was asked how he hoped others would remember him.

“I hope people will recognize that I really care about people and about our future,” he said before picking up his satchel and walking down Pearl Street toward home.

Photography by Jim Richardson