Dr. Robert "Bob" Arvel Schluter, of Salt Lake City, Utah, passed away on Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Robert was born August 27, 1924 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to the late Arvel Riser Schluter of Salt Lake City, UT and Florence Barbara Leach of Kalispell, MT.
Raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Robert graduated from West High School where he took an interest in the ROTC. At the young age of 18 he enlisted in the army and was recruited by the U.S. Army to serve in the Los Alamos, Manhattan Project from 1943-1946. There, he was introduced to Dr. Enrico Fermi, a renowned physicist.
After the end of WWII, Robert received his BS in 1947 from the University of Chicago and continued there under the tutelage of Dr. Enrico Fermi to receive his PhD in Nuclear Physics in 1954.
Robert had a very accomplished academic career, beginning as a research associate at the University of Chicago Institute for Nuclear Studies in 1954. In 1955 he became an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Nuclear Studies, Cambridge, and was promoted to assistant professor. In 1961 he became an Associate Physicist at the Argonne (Illinois) National Laboratory while simultaneously teaching at Northwestern University, Evanston as a professor of Physics and Astronomy where he taught for over thirty years and became a Professor Emeritus. Robert freely gave of his knowledge and also volunteered his time to the scientific world as a Guest Scientist at the Brookhaven (New York) National Laboratory and at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California Berkeley. He was also a guest appointee for the Aspen Institute for Humanities and an advisor for the Northwestern Review and the Northwestern Chronicle.
Dr. Schluter loved teaching with all of his heart and eagerly engaged in stimulating conversation with anyone. His most important student, however, was his son, Jonathan Schluter. Apart from his students and his family, Robert was an accomplished mountain climber and greatly loved the outdoors.
Robert is preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his son, Jonathan Schluter.
A viewing will be held on December 12, 2016 at 1pm and a service held after at 2pm. These services will be held at Larkin Sunset Lawn Chapel on 2350 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City, UT. The burial will be held immediately after at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery on 3401 S Highland Drive.
