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Regards, Pete.

February 21, 2007:
My dad, Alfred James Hartzler, died on February 21. The following text is contributed by Mary Peterson Hartzler; his surviving wife, and by M. E. Hartzler, his surviving brother:

James was born April 17, 1922, the second of six children to Melvin Earnest Hartzler and Zora Frances nee Harris, in Manhattan, Kansas; the home of his maternal grandfather, Samuel Harris. James was named to give him the same initials as his paternal grandfather, Alfred Jerome Hartzler. The Hartzler family lived on Oakwood Street for over twenty years.

James graduated valedictorian of his 1940 Downers Grove Community High School (Illinois) senior class. He was the first chair Sousaphone player of the Downers Grove 1940 National Champion High School Band. He also won first place for his Sousaphone solo at the National Band Contest in Flint Michigan in 1940. He won election to the National Honor Society and a four year scholarship to the University of Chicago.

James earned a BS in physics in 1943; he spent a few months in the army, obtained an honorable discharge, and returned to the university in the fall of 1943. Subsequently, he earned an MS, and in 1951 a Ph.D. in physics for his cosmic ray research. He was elected to the honors society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the honorary science society, Sigma XI. Upon graduation he joined Carnegie Institute of Technology as a research associate. During the Vietnam War he went to The Operations Evaluation Group where he had two overseas tours attached to the Commanders of the Seventh and then Sixth Fleets. He then worked in Operations Research with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and was awarded a distinguished service medal.

He was a master class rally navigator, an expert small craft sailor, and an avid wildlife photographer. James served on the Board of the James Renwick Alliance of the Renwick Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Peterson Hartzler (AB University of Chicago, 1950) of Alexandria, Virginia, a son, Peter Harris Hartzler (AB geophysics University of Chicago, 1981) of Falls Church, Virginia, and two grandchildren, Adam Wilson, 19 and James Peterson, 15. He is also survived by a sister, Eleanor Anne Knight of Lake Forest, Illinois and a brother, Melvin E. Hartzler of Katonah, New York.

He is greatly missed.