Derek Wills

He attended Harrow County School for boys, then studied physics as an undergraduate of Imperial College, London, UK, followed by graduate research at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, University of Cambridge, UK. His thesis presented results of a search for optical identifications of radio sources from the 3C and 4C catalogs, awarded his PhD in 1967. This work partly formed the basis for future discoveries concerning quasars and radio galaxies, and their central black holes. Thus he was appointed as professor in the Astronomy Department and McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin (1966 on).

He was preceded in death by his parents, uncles Glynn Thomas and Arthur Thomas, aunt Olwyn, and cousin Jean Kendall, and survived by cousin Peter Thomas and cousin Jean’s daughters, Laura and Libby Kendall. He is survived by his brother, Michael J. Wills (Anna Dunets), his nieces Laura Wills Hetherington (Neil Hetherington) and Teresa Wills (Chris Vipont Brown) and his adored great- nephew and niece, Ethan and Seren (Wills-Brown). He is also survived by Magda Wills, mother of Laura and Teresa. Derek is also survived by Beverley (Harris), his spouse of 53 years.

There will be a Celebration of Life at First Unitarian Universalist Church at 4700 Grover Ave, 78756 (southern end of Grover) on Friday November 15th at 4pm, with a reception after. The Celebration will be live-streamed from the church via You Tube or a more direct link is https://vimeo.com/event/4706982

The time that comes up when you open the streaming video, is LOCAL time for you, wherever you are. It’s been corrected for time difference and corresponds to 4pm time in Texas