James Reed Holton

Harvard Magazine- Sept./Oct.

JAMES REED HOLTON '60cl died March 3 in Seattle. He was a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington for 38 years and a giant in the field of atmospheric dynamics. He was the author of a seminal 1972 text, An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology, now in its fourth printing and a standard in universities worldwide; he wrote prolifically on wind patterns, weather prediction, climate change, and ozone depletion, and on the interconnection of dynamics, chemistry, and climate. During the 1980s he made major contributions to the design of airborne research missions and the interpretation of satellite data. He received the Roger Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 2000. An avid jogger, skier, cyclist, and hiker, he walked across England last summer--then biked across Washington State in the fall. He leaves his wife, Margaret (Pickens) '63, two sons, Eric and Dennis, and two sisters, Janet Klug and Shirley Koral.