Walter Wada
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Walter W Wada, died March 7th, 2010 after a brief illness at age 91. He was born February 28, 1919, in Loomis, California. He was educated at the California Institute of Technology, received his Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Utah where he met his wife, Helen Hirata, during the internment of Japanese American citizens during World War II. He received his PhD in 1950 from the University of Michigan and worked for 12 years as a nuclear physicist for the US Navy's secret Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. He left the NRL, and in 1962 and began an academic career first at Northwestern University and in 1964 at The Ohio State University where he was Professor of Physics until his retirement in 1989. Dr. Wada did extensive research for the US Atomic Energy Commission and the United States Department of Energy at CERN, Switzerland; Brookhaven and Fermilab National Research Laboratories, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator, Palo Alto, California, and other national and international centers for theoretical high energy physics. His wife Helen, predeceased him in 1985. During his retirement he actively pursued his life long interest in painting with exhibitions at OSU's Hopkins Hall Gallery in 2004 and one person exhibitions at the Columbus Mayor's Office and the OSU President's Entrance Galleries. He received the 2nd Best Award in Painting/Amateur Division at the 2009 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. His paintings will be exhibited in a one person exhibition at the Columbus Cuiltural Arts Center Main Hall Gallery, where he painted several days a week for over 20 years, from May 10 to June 19th, 2010. A Memorial Reception will be held, June 19th at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to the Columbus Cultural Arts Center in the name of Walter W Wada. He is survived by his long time companion retired OSU Physiology Professor, Margaret Nishikawara; his children, Warner Wada, of New York City, Margaret Wada, of Montreal, Canada, Patricia Wada, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Suzanne Wada, of Dallas, Texas; and seven grandchildren.