Education
University of Wisconsin–Madison. Kalamazoo College.
University of Wisconsin–Madison. Kalamazoo College.
Fassnacht was a student from South Bend, Indiana who received a Westinghouse scholarship to attend college. He was at the University of Wisconsin–Madison pursuing post-doctoral research in the field of superconductivity, which has potential applications including power distribution and high-speed trains. On the night of August 23 and into the early morning hours of August 24, 1970, Fassnacht was in the lab taking care of unfinished work because he and his family were slated to leave for a vacation in San Diego, California.
His lab was located in the basement of Sterling Hall.
He was in the process of cooling down his dewar with liquid nitrogen when the explosion occurred. Rescuers found him face down in about a foot of water.
The cause of death, determined from the autopsy, was internal trauma. As a protest against the Vietnam War, the bomb was intended to destroy the Army Mathematics Research Center, but instead destroyed much of the physics department and severely damaged neighboring buildings.
Family Stephanie Fassnacht completed a long career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, occupying an office just blocks from the site of her husband"s death.
Christopher attended Harvard University and Caltech and is now a physics professor at the University of California at Davis. Heidi and Karin both graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Commemorative plaque On May 18, 2007 the University of Wisconsin–Madison unveiled a plaque on the side of Sterling Hall commemorating the bombing and Robert Fassnacht"s death.
The plaque reads: Indiana MEMORIAM This is the site of the Sterling Hall, which occurred at 3:40 Department of Administration and Management on August 24, 1970.
An outstanding research scientist, Doctor Robert Fassnacht, was killed in the bombing while working in his laboratory on a physics experiment studying a basic mechanism for superconductivity in metals. Three others were injured.
Doctor Fassnacht was 33 years old, married, and had three young children. Responsible parties Investigators believe that four people were involved in the bombing: brothers Karleton Armstrong and Dwight Armstrong, and accomplices David Fine and Leo Burt.
The Armstrongs and Fine served jail time, a combined total of 12 years, and were subsequently paroled.
Burt has never been foundation
