Remembering Beatriz Roederer
We are sad to note the death on September 12 of Beatriz Roederer, wife of former Geophysical Institute director Juan Roederer.
An article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in 2012 commemorating the Roederer’s 60th wedding anniversary sketched out the story of the Roederers' careers and their lives in Fairbanks.
Juan and Beatriz were born in Europe 250 miles and two weeks apart; met in Buenos Aires, Argentina; became high-school sweethearts; studied physics together at the local university and graduated two days before their wedding.
Both were among the first scientists employed by the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission. In 1956, Juan was appointed to a faculty position at the University of Buenos Aires and in 1962, became director of the Argentine National Cosmic Ray Center. Their four children, Ernesto, Irene, Silvia and Mario were born in Buenos Aires.
In 1966, after the couple returned with their children from two years in the United States, where Juan had been working at NASA and the Air Force Weapons Laboratory with a senior research fellowship of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a military coup brought the constitutional government in Argentina to a sudden end, causing mass resignations among the faculty. Juan came under personal political fire from the military regime and decided to emigrate to the United States with his family, including his parents and mother-in-law. They settled in Colorado, where Juan took up a professorship at the University of Denver in March 1967.
Juan and Beatriz moved to Fairbanks in September 1977, where Juan was appointed director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Beatriz became actively involved in local organizations, including the Symphony Guild, the League of Women Voters, the Fairbanks Concert Association and Christ Lutheran Church.
Contact Dr. Roederer to extend condolences at jgroederer@alaska.edu.
Beatriz Roederer’s obituary