[LEAPSECS] Dr. Gernot Winkler

[Matsakis, Demetrios]

Dr. Gernot Winkler passed on April 30.   To this list he is well-known as the person who, along with Dr. Essen of NPL. initiated the current system of leap seconds in UTC.  To us in the U.S. Naval Observatory's Time Service Department, Gernot was an inspiring leader in every way.  A strong and supportive manager, aided by his Von-Braun accent, he always encouraged us to do our best.  One of his favorite techniques was to praise someone behind his back about something very specific, because he knew the word would get to him.   He would follow our progress, and would welcome us into his small, densely-packed but well-organized office to talk to us about it.

As a role-model  he was an intellectual giant who was happy to share.  I learned timekeeping from his technical review articles, and very much enjoyed learning philosophy from his almost-as-technical essays on not just the nature of time but of such things as deism, determinism, realism, subjectivism, monism, positivism, etc.     Very recently I even downloaded a table from his website (http://gmrwinkler.net/­), for a viewgraph on whether the future exists.

I still don’t know if there is a future, but I’m pretty sure there was a past because when Gernot was running Time Service, which then included what is now the Earth Orientation department, he would ensure that everything worked.   In fact, a few years ago I told him that it seemed like under his watch everything went smoothly.  He gave me a funny look, and replied that every minute of every day was a struggle.    And it’s good he was struggling – because the department and the USNO grew and prospered with him.   One of his achievements, for example, was to convince the Air Force to use Navy clocks to determine GPS time.     Another was funding and assistance for all kinds of innovations, such as masers, VLBI for Earth Orientation measurements, and TWSTT.

Gernot came a long way from where he grew up in Austria.  To the end he was intellectually vibrant, following the latest developments in science and society.   But I wouldn’t expect anything less from a draftee who had the courage to apply the German army’s own rules to trap a Nazi general in a cable-car over the Alps, and more importantly had the ability to do this and survive.

His final good-bye is attached, along with an email from his son Victor.

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Friends

It is with deep sadness that I am writing to you. This past Saturday (April 30, 2016) at 2:45AM, our father Gernot Winkler passed away in his home. My sister Trixi and I were with him. I have never felt this kind of grief before, but it is really a testament to the kind of person who my father was: I could not have done better.

My father was born 17 October 1922 in Frohnleiten Austria. He and my mother were married in 1952. My sister and I were very fortunate to have them as parents. My mother Renate passed away on 31 March 2014, my father never stopped missing mom. In the two years since then, he was in failing health but he insisted on continuing to live in his house. He, my sister and I all were clear-headed about the situation, and collectively we made it work for dad. He last drove his car in January 2016, and since then his decline accelerated.

Please join me in having either an egg salad or tuna sandwich for lunch ...Gernot loved his tuna fish and egg salad.

The most important point in this email is the enclosure, which dad wrote and revised over many many years.

Please feel free to contact myself or my sister Trixi. I am sorry if this news finds a roundabout path to you, but that’s just the circumstances of this period.

Peace.

Vic Winkler
Trixi (Winkler) Summers

vic at vicwinkler.com   (703) 622 7111
trixisummers at gmail.com
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