Obituary: Joost Kiewiet de Jonge / Retired Pitt astronomy professor
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Joost Kiewiet de Jonge, a retired University of Pittsburgh astronomy professor and World War II pilot who previously lived in Ben Avon, died Saturday in a retirement home in Burkeville, Va. He was 89.
A math enthusiast, Dr. Kiewiet de Jonge wrote scholarly papers touching on that subject as well as the motions of stars, radial velocities and astrometry. A former student described him as a popular and exacting classroom figure who managed to make the subjects he taught interesting.
"As a boy, he was always interested in the stars," remembered his younger brother, Coen, 88, himself a retired San Diego State University professor who lives in Roswell, N.M.
Joost Kiewiet de Jonge was a native of the Netherlands. According to his family, he attended Harvard University from 1937 to 1940 and later received a doctoral degree in astronomy in 1953, after an interruption in his studies during World War II.
During the war, Dr. Kiewiet de Jonge and his brother, Coen, enlisted in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force. They were undergoing training in Java when it was captured by Japan.
The brothers fled to Australia and later resumed their training in the United States. They eventually served in Southeast Asia as B-25 pilots.
Dr. Kiewiet de Jonge had 38 enemy engagements, two short of getting a Distinguished Flying Cross, said his son, Niels, of Farmville, Va.
Because of the number of years since he left the university, a Pitt spokesman yesterday could not immediately provide a complete record of Dr. Kiewiet de Jonge's tenure, but said from 1970 to 1977 he was interim director of the Allegheny Observatory.
He began at the university in 1950, attaining the rank of associate professor of astronomy by the time he retired in 1992, said his son.
"He was a very deep thinker. He was a fascinating person. He was totally into mathematics and numbers," said one former student, George Gatewood, now a retired Pitt astronomy and physics professor who was observatory director until last year.
Dr. Kiewiet de Jonge and his late wife, Anne, were married 49 years, his son said.
Dr. Kiewiet de Jonge is survived by his son and his brother.
A private family memorial service will be held in Farmville, Va.
First Published April 8, 2009 12:00 am
