Sherman King Poultney

Sherman King Poultney
February 9, 2023
Sherman K. Poultney, 85, a physicist and writer, died February 9, 2023 in Pittsboro, NC. Born to George and Ruth Poultney in 1937, he grew up in Leominster, MA. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1958 and earned his PhD in physics from Princeton University in 1962.
He served in the US Army Signal Corp from 1962-64.
In 1964 he became an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland in College Park. At the University of Maryland, he led the electro-optics team that placed a Lunar Laser Ranging Reflector on the moon via the astronauts of the Apollo 11 flight in 1969. The Lunar Ranging ground station achieved the first laser range measurement to the moon. He designed and built the array of retro-reflectors used in the Reflector. The Reflector on the moon is still in use by scientists worldwide.
Beginning in 1975, he worked as a Senior Scientist with Perkin Elmer Corp. in Wilton, CT. While at Perkin Elmer he assembled the first Fourier Transform Spectrometer, the first heterodyne spectrometer and the first tunable diode laser spectrometer. He helped write a proposal for and built a Fraunhofer Line Discriminator for earth resource sensing. He also developed concepts and designs for an optical pressure altitude sensor for aircraft that led to a number of patent disclosures.
Hughes Danbury Optical Systems acquired Perkin Elmer Optical Systems in Danbury, CT in 1987. There he was a System Engineer for optical and spectrometric sensor systems, was the Focal Point for Independent Research and Development for Advanced Sensors, and Manager for a visible imager project for the Strategic Defense Initiative Boost Surveillance and Tracking System Space Program.
In 1996, he left Hughes and joined SFAM/IPEC (Integrated Process Equipment Corp) in Danbury, CT that provided vacuum systems that fabricated silicon wafers used as a base in the printing of semiconductor chips and circuits in the Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) market. He was a System Engineer and Manager of Systems and Algorithms, where he developed requirements and system architecture for plasma shaping cluster tools ad metrology stations.
In 1999, he was a Consulting Engineer for ASML/Silicon Valley Group, a semiconductor equipment company in Wilton, CT that provided the projecting equipment that is used to fabricate micro circuits on silicon wafers. This equipment was originally developed for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) by Perkin Elmer. He helped develop product requirements, concepts, architecture, and functional subsystems for semiconductor wafer surface metrology and surface shaping.
From 2004-2007, he created and taught an upper-level Electrical Engineering course and a Fiber Optic Communication Systems course with laboratory at Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT.
During his professional career he received numerous commendations for excellence and contributions to science.
Sherman was outwardly a quiet, modest man, but inwardly he had a probing mind that sought the bigger questions that only physics could attempt to answer: Where did we come from? How did the universe come about? He was known for his brilliant mind and keen sense of humor. From college on, he wrote hundreds of poems and self-published 17 books of poetry, plays, and stories. He had a deep conviction about the importance of equality and justice and was a lifelong supporter of those causes. He was also known for his eclectic range of interests which included geology, classical music, opera, painting, photography, and world traveling, as well as for being an enthusiastic hiker and skier, particularly in the mountains of New England. He built a clavichord from scratch which he then played.
In 1966, he married Joan McGuire and had a son Christopher in 1970. That marriage ended in 1986. In 1993, he married JoAnn Overton who also had one son, David. They lived in Wilton, CT for 20 years before retiring to North Carolina in 2012.
He will forever be remembered for his integrity, his devotion to the discipline of science, his love of poetry, and the loving care of his family.
He is survived by his wife JoAnn; son Christopher (wife Madrid and daughter Ruth); stepson David Isaacs (wife Nalli); sister Karen Eschrich (husband Glenn); sisters-in-law (Sally and Judy) of two deceased brothers; and several nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life service was held March 11, 2023 at Galloway Ridge at Fearrington, Pittsboro, NC.
Arrangements by Cremation Society of the Carolinas.