More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Victor Regener was both.

Born in Berlin in 1913, he left Germany as soon as he finished his doctorate in physics in 1938, said close friend Derek Swinson, who worked with Regener for 24 years.

In 1946, he came to the University of New Mexico and stayed until he retired in 1979. He was the physics department chairman from 1947-57 and again from 1962-79.

Regener had moved from Albuquerque to Tampa, Fla., in December after being hospitalized for a fall. He died there Jan. 20 at age 92.

While at UNM, Regener designed an addition to the original physics and astronomy building, first used in 1965. He also designed the lecture hall and laboratory building, Regener Hall, named in honor of his work.

At his retirement, he was awarded the UNM Meritorious Service Medal.

Swinson said Regener often went to the department's machine shop and glass-blowing shop to create whatever he needed for teaching or for his research.

"He was part of the grand old school that built everything from scratch," Swinson said. "He built every part of his experiments himself. If he made up his mind to do something, it got done the way he wanted it done."

To his daughter, Vivian Rose, he was honest.

"Father was extremely fair, but what he said goes," she said. "He was always right. There was no compromise."

Swinson said, "When administrators wanted to criticize some of the faculty or not give them a promotion or tenure, Victor fought very hard for those faculty."

Regener was committed to his students, as well.

Swinson said a former graduate student, originally from Greece, told him about the time he first came to UNM.

Regener asked him, "What do you think of us?"

The student said he thought it was a very exciting department with a lot of research going on.

Regener said, "We don't want to turn out physicists. We want to turn out well-rounded individuals."

He then recited the first 10 verses of Homer's Iliad - in Greek.

The student said, "I'm in the right place."

Regener's interests and research included building three cosmic ray telescopes. One is in Embudo Cave in the Sandia Mountains, one in a mine in Socorro and one on Mount Chacaltaya in the Bolivian Andes at 17,400 feet.

He built Capilla Peak Astronomical Observatory in the Manzano Mountains for solar and astronomical research.

He built an ozone-monitoring device to be put on balloons and also studied the ozone at Earth's surface.

"Part of what he loved about physics is what it told him about nature," said Eric Regener, his son. "He would see how the sky was bright in a certain way after dark," and wonder what in the upper atmosphere made it look that way.

Victor Regener was a hiker, mountain climber and skier. In 1998 on one of his last trips, he, wife Birgit and their two children hiked at the base of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

He enjoyed classical music, especially Bach and Beethoven.

At this morning's memorial service at Monte Vista Christian Church, 3501 Monte Vista N.E., Eric Regener, an accomplished pianist, was to accompany a string quartet. The group was to play two pieces his father requested: the First Sonata for Violin and Piano in B Minor by Bach and the Slow Movement of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto in G.