Posted by Edward A. Kritzer on July 20, 2004:

WILLIAM BANDEEN; GODDARD PHYSICIST, ARMY RESERVIST. William Reid Bandeen, 77, an atmospheric physicist at the Goddard Space Flight in Greenbelt, died July 2 at his home in Brinklow after a heart attack. Mr. Bandeen was born in Escanaba, Michigan and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1948, After Signal Corps training he served with the occupation army in Japan and with thee 7th Division during the Korean War. Mr. Bandeen received a master?s degree in meteorology from New York University in 1955 and then served on the Army research rocket team, based at Fort Monmouth, NJ , that investigated winds and temperatures in thr upper atmosphere over Fort Churchill, Canada during the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58. He left active duty military service in 1959 when he was recruited by NASA to work on its first TIROS ( Television Infrared Observation Satellite program ) weather satellite. He retired from the Army Reserve as a Major in 1967. For 30 years after joining NASA, he worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center where he conducted studies in successive meteorological satellite programs. He rose to the position of Goddard?s associate director of space and earth science. After his 1989 retirement, he worked part time as a consultant at the Earth observing system project science office at Goddard. Mr. Bandeen published papers in the fields of atmospheric radiation and the Earth?s radiation budget and was elected as a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received Goddard?s Exceptional Service Award and NASA?s Exceptional Service Medal. He sang and played piano. clarinet and saxophone. He led the glee club in his first year at West Point. The 1948 annual, the Howitzer, reported that ? Bill. the Corps troubadour, was born with a song and he has given forth with it regularly and frequently ever since. His arias immediately after reveille were particularly loved by those awake to listen. A piano under his touch gave forth honky tonk or rhapsody equally well. At last inventory he had an interest in nearly every musical organization in the Corps and was composing on the side. His ambition ? to compose commands to be sung to units. ? At class reunions he regularly led piano songfests. He as a tenor in the choir of Spencerville Seventh day Adventist Church for nearly 35 years. Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Joan Sleeper Bandeen; three children, Kevin Bandeen of Parkville, Md., Karen J. Bandeen-Roche of Ellicot City, and Keith M. Bandeen of Brinklow.

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