Monday, Oct. 6, 2003 | 8:20 a.m.
In the world of physics, Harry "Bob" Fechter was known for his pioneering research for the "Charge Structure of Heavy Nuclei," a thesis with Nobel Laureate Robert Hofstadter.
In the world of mining and metals, Fechter is remembered as the inventor of the slurry method, the pulverizing of metals mixed with a chemical to form a slurry solution.
As a business innovator, Fechter was a pioneer in metal-air fuel cell technology that one day may power automobiles with aluminum instead of gasoline.
As a leader in higher education, Fechter was the founder of the physics department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in the late 1960s and chaired the department for 10 years.
On top of that, he could play a mean piano.
"He was a brilliant guy on so many levels," said KLAS Channel 8 news reporter George Knapp, a longtime friend of Fechter, who died of a stroke Tuesday in Las Vegas. He was 82.
"When he was studying seized Nazi super-weapons at the Naval Base at Wendover (Nev.) after World War II, Harry played piano in his own band and performed for the troops," said Knapp, who has done several stories on Fechter's work.
"And he did classified work with many scientific giants of his day."
Services for the Las Vegas resident of 36 years were to be 3 p.m. today at Affordable Cremation and Burial Society.
Among Fechter's many accomplishments, he designed and fabricated solar and wind energy systems, created down-hole logging systems for oil wells and developed new seismic location techniques. Fechter served as manager of GAPA and BOMARC missile telemetry programs and was the founder and chief of Boeing Radiation Effects Laboratory. He also was president of Photon, a research and development corporation.
Fechter also was a scientific consultant to the Energy Department, Los Alamos Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley Radiation Laboratories.
As a physicist at Los Alamos early in his career, Fechter co-discovered two subatomic particles, Rho and Eta. Fechter also has written for scientific journals and has published internal documents at Argonne National Laboratories and at other facilities.
During the 1980s Fechter helped pioneer metal-air cells, which are rechargeable aluminum fuel cells that provide a nearly inexhaustible power source.
In a 1985 Sun story Fechter said his new battery would not deplete natural resources, and he bemoaned how gasoline engines were exhausting world petroleum resources and polluting the atmosphere.
It was one of a number of inventions that would be improved on by other scientists, resulting in Fechter not getting his fair share of credit or money -- for concepts.
"In recent years Harry was working on a number of concepts that he kept real quiet about," Knapp said, noting that his friend had become leery of people trying to steal his work.
Born April 11, 1921, in Canada, Fechter was raised in Tacoma, Wash. He graduated summa cum laude from Stanford University with degrees in physics and electrical microwave engineering. He also received training in radar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After World War II, Fechter was sent to the base at Wendover, where he utilized dismantled Nazi weapons technology to develop an advanced missile guidance system.
Before coming to UNLV Fechter held professorships and associate professorships in physics and electrical engineering at several universities, including Purdue, Washington and Wisconsin.
Fechter moved with his family to Las Vegas in 1967 and shortly thereafter founded the physics department at UNLV.
After leaving UNLV in the late 1970s Fechter became involved in several scientific ventures, including consultation work for international mining operations and in the field of medical technology.
In 1996, following the death of his 37-year-old son Wilhelm, Fechter formed a citizens group that protested the local Family Court system that he called corrupt.
At hearings to reform the family court, Fechter told of how Wilhelm allegedly was wronged by a biased Family Court judge and about a dispute over visitation rights for Harry's granddaughter.
Though not trained as a lawyer, Fechter sued the Family Court system, wrote his own legal briefs and won several lower court rulings before losing at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Fechter remained active in science until the end. In September 2002 Vista Continental Corp. of Las Vegas hired Fechter to evaluate and develop new ideas for uses of rare earth elements found in the company's mining concessions in Peru.
Fechter is survived by his wife of 47 years, Tordis Fechter; two daughters, Lis Fechter and Anne Fechter, all of Las Vegas; a son, Army Col. Kirk Fechter, currently stationed in Iraq; two grandsons, Thor and Chance; and a granddaughter, Victoria.
In addition to Wilhelm, Fechter was preceded in death by another son, Thor.
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