1977 Christmas Magic Courtesy of the Saxon Inn

This tale is about a five year old girl's fear of spending the Christmas of 1977 in the western Pennsylvania town where both of her parents were born and raised. She is convinced that Santa Claus would not be able to find her on Christmas Eve if she were not right there in her Ohio home, the only home she had ever known. That meant that she would not get gifts for Christmas. Her father hatches a plan to eliminate her fear, a plan that meets with disaster. As a result, the girl loses faith in her father, no longer believing that he knows everything and can do anything. The father needs nothing short of a miracle to regain his daughter's faith in him. Magically, just two nights before Christmas Eve, in an isolated tavern near his boyhood home, just the right miracle to do the job awaits him.

This tale is about a five year old girl's fear of spending the Christmas of 1977 in the western Pennsylvania town where both of her parents were born and raised. She is convinced that Santa Claus would not be able to find her on Christmas Eve if she were not right there in her Ohio home, the only home she had ever known. That meant that she would not get gifts for Christmas. Her father hatches a plan to eliminate her fear, a plan that meets with disaster. As a result, the girl loses faith in her father, no longer believing that he knows everything and can do anything. The father needs nothing short of a miracle to regain his daughter's faith in him. Magically, just two nights before Christmas Eve, in an isolated tavern near his boyhood home, just the right miracle to do the job awaits him.

I was born in 1937 in Brackenridge, PA. I graduated from Har-Brack high School in 1955. I obtained a B.S. in Physics from Penn State in 1959 and a Ph. D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin in 1962. My career in astrophysics included a post-doctoral fellowship fellowship at Caltech and faculty positions at the University of California-Berkeley, The Ohio State University (where I chaired the Department of Astronomy for 13 years), the University of Arizona, the University of Wales-Cardiff and the Michigan State University (where I served as as Associate Chair for Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy). My major areas of research included black hole powered active nuclei of galaxies, the dynamics of the interstellar gas and dust and the dynamical evolution of gaseous nebulae, both those associated with the deaths of common stars and the births of not-so-common high mass stars. For a period spanning 5 decades beginning in 1960 I had scientific articles published in refereed journals, mostly in the Astrophysical Journal. I co-authored an introductory textbook for college level courses that was extended through 4 editions. I was involved in three major telescope projects. While at Ohio State as a member of the Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Board of Directors, I served on the site selection committee for the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Also while at Ohio State I served on the Board of Directors of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). While at Michigan State I served on the Board of Directors of the Southern Observatory for Astronomical Research (SOAR) Telescope. My crowning achievements were to get my wife Carole to marry me in 1960 and to help her raise our 5 children. Carole and I proudly count 6 grandchildren.