Spring Break
A daugther remembers
Linda Holmstrom Keesling
Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: News
In 1963 the family again moved to San Jose, where Dr. Holmstrom took chairmanship of the physics department at San Jose State. Fred built the first laser at SJSU in the 1960s. This started an increased interest in lasers in Bay Area colleges, cradle of the Silicon Valley. Teaching all of the graduate classes in physics and astronomy at both San Jose State and Stanford University during his tenure honed his clever wit and style. He started each graduate class period with a joke. He also taught many classes at area community colleges, where he was loved by his students.
Among his other activities were jobs as a civilian contractor for NASA Ames Research, IBM and Lick Observatory, where he explored the existence of black holes, quasars and pulsars. Fred was the first scientist to use the linear accelerator at Lawrence Livermore Labs, where he did experiments on particle wave motion that helped to redefine the universe as we know it. His calculations, from this data, on the CREA computer at UC Davis showed we live in a universe with at least 12 dimensions and that no surface is truly solid but just an expression of wave motion. Later he invented a golf ball called Polara, which flies straight, in 1977. In the week of its release, it made front-page center of the Wall Street Journal on the West Coast. Toward the end of his career he was seeking information on string theory, neutron stars, white holes and dark matter. Dr. Holmstrom retired from teaching in 1997 and moved to Northern California.
Fred's greatest loves were teaching and writing. He was a very dynamic and intelligent individual. He didn't like to be idle, and one could find him painting the house, doing yard work or finishing cement in his off hours. Though he was very learned, he was deeply religious as well. Speaking of the mix of science and religion, Dr. Holmstrom coined the phrase "Truth is truth, no matter the context." He always said science and religion go hand-in-hand and that the more he learned, the more evidence proved that God is the author of the universe. On the subject of creation, he taught that "God works with, not in opposition to, the natural laws of the universe."
Among his other activities were jobs as a civilian contractor for NASA Ames Research, IBM and Lick Observatory, where he explored the existence of black holes, quasars and pulsars. Fred was the first scientist to use the linear accelerator at Lawrence Livermore Labs, where he did experiments on particle wave motion that helped to redefine the universe as we know it. His calculations, from this data, on the CREA computer at UC Davis showed we live in a universe with at least 12 dimensions and that no surface is truly solid but just an expression of wave motion. Later he invented a golf ball called Polara, which flies straight, in 1977. In the week of its release, it made front-page center of the Wall Street Journal on the West Coast. Toward the end of his career he was seeking information on string theory, neutron stars, white holes and dark matter. Dr. Holmstrom retired from teaching in 1997 and moved to Northern California.
Fred's greatest loves were teaching and writing. He was a very dynamic and intelligent individual. He didn't like to be idle, and one could find him painting the house, doing yard work or finishing cement in his off hours. Though he was very learned, he was deeply religious as well. Speaking of the mix of science and religion, Dr. Holmstrom coined the phrase "Truth is truth, no matter the context." He always said science and religion go hand-in-hand and that the more he learned, the more evidence proved that God is the author of the universe. On the subject of creation, he taught that "God works with, not in opposition to, the natural laws of the universe."
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