Emery Family - Person Sheet
NameUlrich Kruse 
Birth1929
Death12 Nov 2013
EducationBelmont Hill School, Harvard University (A.B., 1950; Ph.D., 1954)
Misc. Notes
Ulrich ("Uli") Kruse, 84, of Urbana, retired University of Illinois physics professor, died peacefully Tuesday night after a five-year struggle with Parkinson's.
He was much loved by his wife of 54 years, Mary Ullmann Kruse; his children, Sarah (Tom Juster) and their children Mario and Sofia of St. Petersburg, Fla., Thomas (Pamela Calla) and their children Ben and Julia Elena of New York City, and Julie (Sherri Moses) of Washington, D.C.
Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1929, Kruse was the grandson of a surgeon who served on the front for four years in World War I, and the son of a social worker and a teacher. With his parents and brother George, Kruse emigrated to Boston from Nazi Germany in 1938. He was a lifelong pacifist who believed in the dignity of all people. He opposed the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Central America and Iraq, and advocated against the U.S. "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative with other scientists as unfeasible, costly and dangerous.
Kruse attended Shady Hill School, Belmont High School, and Harvard University on a full scholarship, where he studied physics and was on the rowing team. He graduated summa cum laude and was selected as a Junior Fellow by the Harvard Society of Fellows to carry out research. He completed his Ph.D. at Harvard in high energy physics under thesis adviser Norman Ramsey, carrying out early proton-proton scattering experiments with Harvard's cyclotron.
Kruse's work in elementary particle physics and high energy physics techniques continued after he was hired by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago in 1954, and at the University of Illinois, where he joined the Physics Department in 1959. Throughout his career he worked with particle accelerators at the Argonne, Brookhaven and Fermilab national laboratories in the United States. During sabbaticals with his family, he worked at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland in 1967, and the DESY laboratory while based at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich in 1974-75 and 1980-82.
Kruse was a beloved and well-respected physics teacher. He created computer-based laboratory approaches and simulations still used in physics instruction at the University of Illinois.
After his retirement from the UI in 1990, Kruse pursued his interest in geology. He informally joined the research group of Prof. Wang-Ping Chen in the UI Department of Geology, and participated actively in weekly discussions of earthquakes and how the study of earthquake waves can provide important clues about the nature of the earth's interior. Building from his background in physics, he was able to help his new colleagues find new ways to solve problems. He also carried out field work and published a scientific article with his daughter Sarah on ground-penetrating radar.
Kruse had an enormous zest for mountains, in particular the Alps and the Tetons in Wyoming. He and his wife, Mary, climbed the Grand Teton on their honeymoon. Over five decades of marriage, they conveyed their love for nature to their children and grandchildren through climbing, hiking, skiing, canoeing and kayaking in the Tetons.
Kruse loved photography, classical music, opera and poetry, often quoting from Blake, Shakespeare and college classmate Tom Lehrer. He delighted in making others laugh through jokes and puns.
Kruse loved to teach and help others; he developed a computer simulation of the geological history of the Grand Teton National Park shown for years at the Park Headquarters; volunteered for his daughter Julie in non-profit management; sailed with his son Tom on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia; and helped his friend Clodo Soto lay out a Quechua-Spanish-English dictionary, among many other projects and interests. So that his children and grandchildren would know some of their heritage, in his last year he translated his grandfather's memoirs of service as a medic in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war.
Kruse will be greatly missed by his family and friends. A private service will be held later in the year. In lieu of gifts, please donate in his name to Earth Justice (earthjustice.org) or the Center for Constitutional Rights (ccrjustice.org).
He was much loved by his wife of 54 years, Mary Ullmann Kruse; his children, Sarah (Tom Juster) and their children Mario and Sofia of St. Petersburg, Fla., Thomas (Pamela Calla) and their children Ben and Julia Elena of New York City, and Julie (Sherri Moses) of Washington, D.C.
Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1929, Kruse was the grandson of a surgeon who served on the front for four years in World War I, and the son of a social worker and a teacher. With his parents and brother George, Kruse emigrated to Boston from Nazi Germany in 1938. He was a lifelong pacifist who believed in the dignity of all people. He opposed the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Central America and Iraq, and advocated against the U.S. "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative with other scientists as unfeasible, costly and dangerous.
Kruse attended Shady Hill School, Belmont High School, and Harvard University on a full scholarship, where he studied physics and was on the rowing team. He graduated summa cum laude and was selected as a Junior Fellow by the Harvard Society of Fellows to carry out research. He completed his Ph.D. at Harvard in high energy physics under thesis adviser Norman Ramsey, carrying out early proton-proton scattering experiments with Harvard's cyclotron.
Kruse's work in elementary particle physics and high energy physics techniques continued after he was hired by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago in 1954, and at the University of Illinois, where he joined the Physics Department in 1959. Throughout his career he worked with particle accelerators at the Argonne, Brookhaven and Fermilab national laboratories in the United States. During sabbaticals with his family, he worked at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland in 1967, and the DESY laboratory while based at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich in 1974-75 and 1980-82.
Kruse was a beloved and well-respected physics teacher. He created computer-based laboratory approaches and simulations still used in physics instruction at the University of Illinois.
After his retirement from the UI in 1990, Kruse pursued his interest in geology. He informally joined the research group of Prof. Wang-Ping Chen in the UI Department of Geology, and participated actively in weekly discussions of earthquakes and how the study of earthquake waves can provide important clues about the nature of the earth's interior. Building from his background in physics, he was able to help his new colleagues find new ways to solve problems. He also carried out field work and published a scientific article with his daughter Sarah on ground-penetrating radar.
Kruse had an enormous zest for mountains, in particular the Alps and the Tetons in Wyoming. He and his wife, Mary, climbed the Grand Teton on their honeymoon. Over five decades of marriage, they conveyed their love for nature to their children and grandchildren through climbing, hiking, skiing, canoeing and kayaking in the Tetons.
Kruse loved photography, classical music, opera and poetry, often quoting from Blake, Shakespeare and college classmate Tom Lehrer. He delighted in making others laugh through jokes and puns.
Kruse loved to teach and help others; he developed a computer simulation of the geological history of the Grand Teton National Park shown for years at the Park Headquarters; volunteered for his daughter Julie in non-profit management; sailed with his son Tom on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia; and helped his friend Clodo Soto lay out a Quechua-Spanish-English dictionary, among many other projects and interests. So that his children and grandchildren would know some of their heritage, in his last year he translated his grandfather's memoirs of service as a medic in the 1870 Franco-Prussian war.
Kruse will be greatly missed by his family and friends. A private service will be held later in the year. In lieu of gifts, please donate in his name to Earth Justice (earthjustice.org) or the Center for Constitutional Rights (ccrjustice.org).
Spouses
Marriage1958