Bernard Leitner M.S. ’72, Sept. 30, 1927 – June 14, 2014. A resident of Palo Alto, Bernie grew up in Wayzata, Minnesota. At the University of Minnesota, Bernie fell in with a crowd of sci-fi fans, studied physics, and also fell for Jane Tynan. The two were married in China Lake, California. Bernie’s work as an aerospace engineer at Lockheed-Martin took the family from the island of Oahu, to a year exploring Europe, then to Palo Alto, California, where Bernie and Jane settled in for the next fifty years. Bernie earned a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Santa Clara University. His career culminated with his work on the Hubble Space Telescope.

An outdoor enthusiast, Bernie bicycled the California coast, and across the Sierras, the Rockies, and the Nevada desert. He hiked over Hawaiian volcanoes, through Kings Canyon, and up to the Continental Divide. Together, Bernie and Jane globe-trotted from New Zealand to Greenland. Bernie died at his home in Windsor, California. He is survived by his wife, Jane, his son and daughter-in-law, Kam and Valerie, his daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and Daniel, and his grandson, Kyle. Bernie’s warmth, humor, intelligence, friendship, his love and the spark that is him will be forever missed.