Allen Goodrich Shenstone, 27 July 1893 - 16 February 1980

Abstract

Allen Goodrich Shenstone died at the age of 86 on 16 February 1980 in Princeton, where he had dwelt and worked for the greater part of his life. In spite of the distraction of World War I, during which he served with distinction in the Royal Engineers in France, by the early 1930s he had produced so much high-class work and enough novel interpretation and concept to be recognized as one of the leaders in research on atomic spectra. Though his scientific work was again interrupted by notable service in Canada and Britain in World War II, he remained active in comprehensive observation and analyses to the end of his long life. He was one of the great spectroscopists of this century, his peers—allowing for some overlap in time—including Alfred Fowler, W. F. Meggers, F. Paschen, H. N. Russell and M. A. Catalan. Shenstone was born in Toronto and, though he spent most of his working life and retirement in the United States, he proudly remained a Canadian and British national. All who knew him would agree that precision, integrity and loyalty characterized the life pattern and work of this fine man and scientist. The biographer’s task has been much facilitated by the existence of copious autobiographical notes left by Allen Shenstone and of a remarkable diary by an ancestor to be referred to immediately.