Charles Harold Wilts PhD (1920 - 1991)

Born 30 Jan 1920 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Ellen Louise (Beaumont) Wilts — married 14 Jun 1947 in Los Angeles, CA

Died 12 Mar 1991 at age 71 in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Denise Ganopole [send private message], Janet Wilts [send private message], and Chuck Wilts [send private message]

Biography

A mountain climber who made several first ascents in Yosemite and wrote several climbers guides on same.

Professor of Electrical Engineering at California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Charles Wilts Prize

The Doctoral Prize named after Charles H. Wilts has been instituted by his Caltech colleagues and was endowed by his friends, students, and colleagues as a lasting tribute to the scientist, the teacher, and the man he was. The mark of his science was excellence. His teaching was rigorous and his demands were high, but attainable when his own path of exactitude followed. Most of all, it is the man that the prize wants to honor. He loved nature enthusiastically, had a disarming personal simplicity with an engaging smile and laugh, and possessed an unbending integrity and rectitude he placed above any concerns for fame, power, or profit. He deeply respected his fellow men.

The Prize is awarded every year to one EE graduate student for outstanding independent research in electrical engineering leading to a PhD.

Sources

Family history, supplemented with information found on line

Ancestry.com, including

• California Birth Index
• 1940 Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California census - Charles is 20 years old, living with his parents and going to college - occupation: general machinist/building aparatr---?
• 1950 Altadena, Los Angeles, California US Census - married with one son - occupation: engineering professor/Caltech
• California Death Index

Misc.

• Obit in the American Alpine Journal.
• List of research works done at Caltech, etc.