In Memoriam: Yervant Terzian, 1939 - 2019

It is with sadness that we share the news of the passing of Yervant Terzian on Monday 25th November at his home in Ithaca, NY, after a long and difficult illness. Here we share some words and sentiments contributed by Murray Lewis and Don Campbell in his honor.

Yervant was a staunch personal friend, and always a caring and deeply interested colleague. He was a frequent visitor to the observatory in support of all of the usual review committees, and was involved in all Cornell interactions and support measures on the island. His life-time involvement with the Observatory began during his post doc years, which caused weekend observing to be instituted as a result of his enthusiasm, all the way through to his continuous telcon presence on the almost mundane monthly RFI Group meetings in the Observatory while I chaired that group. Whatever concerned the Observatory had his attention. The Observatory went through two very significant structural upgrades during his time at Cornell, and I know he was strongly supportive of the second, Gregorian upgrade during his 20 year tenure as the Cornell Astronomy Dept. Chair. He fostered visits by AO staff to Cornell, of staff members giving summer course lecture series in Cornell, and even of Cornell donor group's visits to the Observatory and the Island, which he often carried through in person. He was generous with his time, and always supportive. Moreover he did his best to manage personnel tensions whenever these arose. For AO he was a constant wise benefactor.

Yervant sponsored several students, both REU and graduates to studies using our telescope. He also was encouraging in giving support to explore unconventional ideas. He had an open mind, something I particularly appreciated. He is missed. The Arecibo Observatory is grateful for the lifetime of contributions to the facility by Dr. Yervant Terzian.

Keywords: arecibo, pulsars, observatory timing, black, hole, perera, puerto rico, array, gravitational, waves, asteroids, Parkes