Beatriz Roederer

Beatriz Susana Roederer passed away in the morning of September 12, 2022, four days shy of her 93rd birthday, after a year in loving care at Frasier Meadows' Summit Center. She died in silence and in peace - after a lifelong fight for truth and loyalty to family, friends and to both of her countries, past and present. She is survived by her loving husband Juan; her younger brother Carlos Cougnet (Elizabeth) of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and their large family; by her four children Ernesto (José Piedra), Irene, Silvia (Leslie Tung), Mario (Nicole Poulton) and daughter-in-law Laurel Lagenaur; and by her grandchildren Marika, Zora, Anita, Monica, and Alex. Beatriz was born in Lausanne, Switzerland to her Argentine parents Fausto and Susana, but grew up in Argentina from age 1. In 1945 she met her future husband Juan in high school in Buenos Aires; she studied physics and mathematics at the local university and obtained a Master's degree two days before her wedding to Juan on December 20, 1952. She was one of the first four researchers hired by the then brand-new Argentine Atomic Energy Commission, working on high-energy fundamental particle physics. Her contributions were notable: lead author of the first ever physics research article published by an Argentine team in an international peer-reviewed journal; single author of a major paper on high energy particle physics; thesis director of a graduate student of the local university on nuclear reactions recorded at the Bevatron accelerator in Berkeley, California. All this, while creating a beautiful family. After the third child, born in 1958, she changed her job to full-time mother. In June 1966, the political landscape in Argentina turned dangerous to defenders of democracy and obliged Beatriz and Juan to emigrate to the US with their four children and three surviving parents. Here, Beatriz was firmly in charge of all the logistic operations of the move, from house and car sale, to transportation, to home rentals, car and furniture purchases in Denver, to placing the kids in schools, attending PTA meetings, etc. - on top of cooking and organizing the daily family dinner for nine! In 1977 came a call to Alaska, for Juan to become director of the world-renowned Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Another big emigration, to a fascinating place; this time, only the youngest child and Juan's mother joined the couple in the move. Beatriz burst into town full of energy to contribute to the cultural, social and political life of Alaska: an amazing, still-young and challenging state. She served as member and financial officer of the League of Women Voters, the Lutheran church, the Fairbanks Symphony Association, a tax consultant, and a Teamsters election supervisor in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Indeed, on multiple occasions, when the powerful Alaska Senator Ted Stevens happened to see her face in an airport or in the crowd at a meeting, he would shout aloud to the puzzlement of many; "How are ya, Beatriz?" After Juan's retirement from teaching, Beatriz started accompanying him more often on his many science and policy-related trips all over the world; many of them VIP tours at the invitation of the host institutions - in China, Tibet, India, Japan, South Africa, Russia, and, of course, Argentina and Europe. Whenever people asked her what she thought her greatest achievement in life had been, she never hesitated: "Producing four children with many advanced degrees, who, despite their concomitant workload, love and help each other no matter what". After 37 years in Alaska, her children persuaded Beatriz and Juan to move back to Colorado, which they had loved for a long time; they joined Frasier Meadows, a wonderful place for retired intellectuals. It was music that had brought Beatriz and Juan together. In the hot summer that followed Christmas 1945 Beatriz used to come up to the loft to sit next to Juan on the organ bench in the Buenos Aires German Evangelical Church while he was practicing. She assisted by turning pages and pulling the stops. And in a miraculous and emotionally overwhelming way, it was music that took them asunder: beautiful organ music suddenly flooded the air after Juan had taken his last look at her angelical face in eternal sleep. It came from TVs broadcasting the service in Edinburgh's Cathedral for Queen Elizabeth II. Little did that organist know that he was playing a requiem for two queens. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The League of Women Voters or Planned Parenthood.