A memorial service was held in the University Chapel yesterday afternoon to honor former Astronomy Prof. Robert Rood, who retired last spring and passed away last week at the age of 69 after suffering a stroke. Colleagues, students, family members and other members of the University community joined together to reflect upon his life and legacy.
Rood's siblings, his former student Tom Bania, Astronomy Department Chair John Hawley, Rood's two daughters and his wife spoke at the service.
Rood joined the astronomy department in 1973 as an associate professor after doing post-doctorate research at the California Institute of Technology. He became a full professor in 1992, and served as the department chair from 1999 to 2006. Rood is best known for his work on "mass loss in low-mass giant stars" and "the cosmic abundance of Helium-3 as an independent indicator of baryonic density during the nucleosynthesis era of the big bang, an important part of today's understanding of cosmology and the universe," Hawley said in an online obituary for Rood.
Rood developed the course "Life Beyond Earth" at the University, "which has been a perennial favorite of students," Hawley added in an email.
Claire Snell-Rood, his daughter, said she admired her father's interactions with students in the class.
"He left space in that room for students to develop their own interests," she said. "They would write their final papers about anything they wanted, and they would have the strangest topics associated with life beyond Earth. The fact that he let them do that shows he admired the creative approach that they took; he let them take the class their own way."
Emilie Snell-Rood, Rood's other daughter, said her father left an impression on students which was visible even in reviews online.
"My sister and I a couple days ago were reading through his ratemyprofessor.com comments, [and] we were laughing because most of all of the students commented on how he was eccentric and a little weird but a good teacher," she said. "That definitely left an impression on them ... He had a unique personality and that's what they remembered."
Hawley said Rood has always been committed to the University. In his obituary, he said Rood "had planned to retire two years earlier, but stayed on during the University's hiring freeze out of a sense of duty, not wanting to leave the department short handed in a difficult time when we would be unable to replace him."
At the service, Bania described how Rood served as his mentor throughout both his academic career and extracurricular life.
"Bob was my mentor throughout my career, [and] I'm not just talking about my academic career," he said. "I'm talking about science, food, wine, people and extra terrestrial intelligence."
Rood was also a powerful mentor for his two daughters.
"We're thankful he was supportive of our independence and passions in life," Emilie Snell-Rood said.
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