Bob Wharton

President of South Dakota School of Mines dies, PRapid City Journal
“Wharton served as executive officer for the National Science Foundation’s office of polar programs, participating in 11 expeditions to the Antarctic. He also was a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.”
Keith’s note: I am profoundly saddened to hear of Bob’s passing. I got to know Bob very well when he and I worked at the old Life Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters in the 1980s. Bob was an astrobiologist before the word had even been coined. He was an adventurer and a jack of all trades. Among other things, he spent a lot of time diving under Antarctic ice with Chris McKay and Dale Andersen and roaming the Antarctic dry valleys. He was also an avid climber and mountaineer. Bob and I went rock climbing several times. One trip in particular, to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia, on a day not unlike today, is etched into my mind. I can clearly recall asking him on that trip if he thought there was life on Mars. He paused for a moment and said “I … think so”. I can only hope that somewhere on Curiosity’s travels across Gale crater on Mars, that something of prominence is named after Bob Wharton.