Krzysztof M. Serkowski, Research Professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Astronomer at the Steward Observatory, both of the University of Arizona, died after a long illness on 7 October 1981.

Serkowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, on December 8, 1930. He lived in Warsaw during the war of 1939-1945. It was a hard place to be during the war and afterwards. Serkowski studied physics and astronomy during the years 1949-1954, first at Warsaw University and then at Wroclaw University where he received a Master’s degree in 1954. Originally he wanted to become a biologist, studying cells, but genetics had its problems under Stalin. “Biology without genetics was like a day in Poland without a potato,” Krzysztof used to recall. His natural second choice was astronomy.

Serkowski had been at the University of Arizona in Tucson since April 1970, first as an Associate Professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and, since 1979, as a Research Professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Astronomer at the Steward Observatory.

Krzysztof M. Serkowski papers, 1970-1982