Brian J. Thompson has died (91)

Longtime Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Rochester, Professor, author of The Physical Optics Notebook and its successor The New Physical Optics Notebook, longtime editor of the journal Optical Engineering, and general optics know-it-all, has died. "

“BJ the DJ” one of my fellow students used to irreverently call him.

It’s the end of an era.

Was he also a disc jockey then?

Nope. My friend just liked the rhyme.

He also liked calling up Professor Emil Wolf just to listen to his answering machine message. Wolf sounded amazingly like Ludwig von Drake.

well bummer, but he wasn’t a spring chicken when I took a couple classes from him back in 78-79.