The group Friends of Charles Richter wants to make sure that this famous son is not forgotten, said Anne Jantzen, a member of the group.
“We formed the group about a year ago because we learned so much about him and realized his name was in danger of being forgotten,” Jantzen said, referring to the fact that earthquake measurements are becoming less commonly referred to with the Richter scale. “Even though we grew up hearing that an earthquake measured say 8.7 on the Richter scale, the next generation will not.”
The Friends of Charles Richter group will celebrate and honor the man at 9:30 a.m. on April 26, the 112th anniversary of his birthday, at Richter’s Ohio Historical Society marker near the intersection of Hamilton-Trenton and Busenbark roads.
The Butler County Commissioners, the St. Clair Twp. Trustees and the Butler County MetroParks have declared April 26 as Charles F. Richter Day, according to Jantzen.
“Our mission is to let people know who he was and that he was born here in Butler County,” Jantzen said.
Richter was born April 26, 1900, on a farm near Trenton, where he lived until the age of 9 when he moved to California with his mother.
He attended the University of Southern California and Stanford University before entering the California Institute of Technology to work on a doctorate in theoretical physics.
In 1927, before earning his degree, Richter went to work at CIT’s new seismological laboratory. He developed the Richter scale with Beno Gutenberg in 1935 and eventually became a professor of seismology at CIT in 1952, where he worked until his retirement in 1970.
Richter died in 1985 and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, Calif.
“Our effort is the keep his memory alive,” Jantzen said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2852 or Skip.Weaver@coxinc.com.
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