David Hafemeister

1934 - 2023

David Hafemeister
July 1, 1934 - March 31, 2023
San Luis Obispo, California - David Hafemeister passed on March 31, 2023 at the age of 88. He was born on July 1, 1934. His parents were Alma and Lester Hafemeister of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He married his wife, Gina, in 1961. He is survived by his wife, their children, Andy, Jason, Heidi, a trio of spouses Laurence, Darci, Craig and a sextuplet of grandchildren Matthieu, Adeline, Alexandre, Lydia, Grace, and Elijah. Family life was a blessing.
David was a professor of physics at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and lived a bicoastal life between Washington, DC and SLO. David worked on nuclear proliferation and arms control matters in the US Senate (Comm. on Foreign Relations, Comm. on Governmental Affairs, Office of Senator John Glenn), in the State Department (Office of Under Secretary of State, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs, Office of START negotiations [ACDA]). He assisted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) Chair, Senator Claiborne Pell, on the ratification of the TTBT Treaty (nuclear testing), the START I Treaty, the maintenance of the ABM treaty, the chemical and biological weapon treaties, and the Open Skies Treaty. He assisted the SFRC European Subcommittee Chair, Senator Joe Biden on the ratification of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) at the close of the Cold War. He was Study Director of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on "Beyond START" which explored arms control at the end of the Cold War. He was the NAS lead technical staff on the Complete Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). He was chair of the American Physical Societies Panel on Public Affairs and the APS Forum on Physics and Society. He served 8 years on the Board of the Federation of American Scientists, and 3 years as Chair on the external review of the Los Alamos Non Proliferation Division. Among other awards, in 2022 he received the University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award for his global work on arms control. Many of these treaties have now been withdrawn, but he hoped they would inspire future treaties. An author of several books, his last works Physics of Societal Issues, and Nuclear Proliferation and Terrorism in the Post 9/11 World (Springer 2014, 2016) are in the Cal Poly Library.