Converse H. Blanchard

Converse H. Blanchard MADISON, WI Converse Herrick (Connie) Blanchard, Emeritus Professor of Physics, UW Madison, died unexpectedly on August 13, 2009 in Chilmark, Massachusetts. He was a much loved teacher, colleague, husband, father, grandfather, friend, community volunteer, and an appreciative and enthusiastic University Heights resident for 47 years. He was born to Miriam Eliza Herrick and Lindall Converse Blanchard of Abington, Massachusetts, in September 1923. He earned the AB from Harvard College and served in the USNR, 1943-6. In 1946 he was married to Margaret Alice (Mardie) Wheatley who took devoted and loving care of her husband and four children in a happy marriage of 35 years. Blanchard took the PhD in nuclear theory at UW Madison, and joined the faculty at Penn State University where he taught and did neutron physics and nuclear theory, 1953-1961. He returned to UW Madison as a faculty member with particular responsibility for teaching and advising the graduate teaching assistants. Mardie Blanchard died in 1981, and in 1984 he was married to June Miller Weisberger, now Emerita Professor of Law at UW Madison, with whom he had a happy later life for over 25 years. He taught at UW Madison from 1961 to 1991. Seven students completed PhD research with him. In 1987, he received a campus wide distinguished teaching award in recognition of his exceptional ability to reach and inspire students both before full lecture halls and in one-on-one conversations. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a past president of the Wisconsin Association of Physics Teachers. Blanchard was also a strong advocate for peace and other political and social justice causes, including being a founding member and initial chair of the Madison group of Amnesty International. In retirement he visited more than 1600 third-grade classrooms with a box of experiments and delighted in this work. He was an inquisitive, gentle man of good humor who was eager to add to his knowledge of science and other disciplines and was dedicated to the education of students of all ages. He is survived by his beloved wife June; his sister Mary Blanchard Hanabury of Kingston, Massachusetts; his children Elizabeth (Beth) Blanchard Schaffer (Steve) of Washington D.C., Margaret (Margy) Blanchard (Bob Lewis) of Middleton, Jean Patt (Tom) of Oshkosh, and Brian Blanchard (Mary) of Madison; and his grandchildren, Michael and Carolyn Patt, and Will, Ben, and Allison Blanchard, as well as Junes children, Jon Weisberger (Deborah) of Cottontown, Tennessee, Lise Weisberger (Malcolm Rich) of Skokie, Illinois, and Beth Weisberger (Timothy Fishbaugh) of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and Junes grandchildren, Abigail, Miriam, and Rebecca Rich, Leo Weisberger and Sidney Lucas, and Leah Fishbaugh. Friends are invited to join the celebration of Connies life at the Sigma Phi fraternity house at 106 N. Prospect Avenue in Madison on Sunday, October 11 from 1:30 - 3:30 P.M. with informal remarks at 2:30 P.M. Those who would like to share a memory of Connie to be compiled into a book of remembrances are encouraged to email it, and their name as they wish it to appear, to Connies daughter Beth at bethbsdc@aol.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Connies name to support Madison public schools through the Foundation for Madisons Public Schools, 455 Science Dr., Madison, WI 53711, or to provide need-based scholarships at UW Madison through The Faculty Staff Great People Scholarship Initiative at the UW Foundation, 1848 University Avenue, Madison 53726. The UW Foundations website is UWFoundation.wisc.edu.