In Memoriam
Laura Fermi
1907-1977
Laura Fermi, widow of physics pioneer Enrico Fermi, died Dec. 26, 1977 in Chicago after a short illness.
Mrs. Fermi, 70, succumbed to cardiac arrest. She died at the University of Chicago's Billings Hospital, a few blocks from the site of the first sustained nuclear reaction. Her late husband had designed the first atomic piles and produced the first nuclear chain reaction in a facility under the stands at Stagg Field in 1942.
Mrs. Fermi visited the Laboratory site in 1974 to participate in ceremonies renaming the former National Accelerator Laboratory to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Speaking briefly to the assembly, she said:
"I cannot think of any other place that has ... as great a potential for science and so much esthetical value."
"Fermi predicted that as they (future accelerators) would grow in power and size they would not be built on the earth but around it, and physics laboratories would be in outer space. At the time his remarks caused great bursts of laughter. But Fermi was a good prophet: in the early 40's he belonged to a society of prophets at Columbia University, and earned the highest score for correct prophecies. Outer space laboratories are already a reality, and you may expect that at some future time accelerators will change the aspect of the earth and make it resemble the planet Saturn," Mrs. Fermi said.
Mrs. Fermi came to the U.S. from Italy in 1939 with her husband, known as the father of the atomic bomb. She was active in anti-handgun and anti-pollution campaigns.
Among several books she authored were: "Atoms in the Family," "Illustrious Immigrants: The Intellectual Migration from Europe 1930-41," "Mussolini," "Atoms for the World" and "The Story of Atomic Energy." She was co-author of "Galileo and the Scientific Revolution."
Mrs. Fermi founded the Civic Disarmament Committee for Handgun Control. She also founded the Cleaner Air Committee of Hyde Park and Kenwood and served on the Chicago Air Pollution Control Commission. She was a member of the board of the International House of Chicago and the women's board of the University of Chicago. She was a Guggenheim fellow in 1957.
A year after her husband won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1938, the couple fled to the U.S. from the Fascist regime in Italy. She is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Nella Weiner, of Chicago; a son, Giulio, a microbiology researcher at Cambridge University, England; and two sisters in Italy, Mrs. Anna Montel and Mrs. Paola Franchetti.