Quark Discoverer, Nobel Winner Dies During Underwater Dive

Henry Kendall, 72, a Nobel Prize winning physicist who outlined the building blocks of matter and co-founded the antiwar group, Union of Concerned Scientists, died on Feb. 15, 1999, during an underwater photography dive.

A professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge), Kendall was working with a National Geographic magazine mapping team at Wakulla Springs State Park (Wakulla Springs, FL), when his body was found in shallow water, Wakulla County Sheriff Office's Captain Gene McCarthy says. Investigators have not yet determined if Kendall died of a heart attack or encountered a problem in the water and drowned. Air was left in his tank, McCarthy says.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Kendall worked with Jerome Friedman and Richard Taylor to uncover evidence that protons and neutrons were comprised of smaller components called quarks. In 1990, the researchers shared the Nobel Prize for proving their theory correct.

Kendall once said his team's discovery of the quark was a remarkable find that "contributed to the deeper understanding" of the world.

Kendall received a Ph.D. in nuclear and atomic physics from MIT in 1954. He taught at Stanford University from 1956 to 1961. After this, he accepted a teaching position at MIT, which he held until his death.

In 1969, Kendall helped to found the Union of Concerned Scientists (Cambridge, MA). He served as the union's chairman from 1973, leading efforts to warn against the dangers of nuclear weapons and safety hazards in the nuclear power industry and space-based weapons.

Through the group, he challenged President Reagan's "Star Wars" defense system proposal and helped brief President Clinton in 1997 on global warning. In 1992, Kendall wrote and spearheaded the World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, in which some 1,700 of the world's leading researchers appealed for an end to the destruction of the Earth's natural resources.

Kendall was a large shareholder in his family business, Kendall Co., which made Curad bandages, Curity diapers, and hospital equipment. Colgate Palmolive Co. bought the business in 1972 for $512 million.

For more information, call 617-547-5552.