Astrophysicist hailed for civic passion
ROME - Margherita Hack, an astrophysicist who explained her research on the stars in plain language for the public and who championed civil rights in her native Italy, died Saturday in the Adriatic Sea town of Trieste, where she had headed an astronomical observatory. She was 91.
President Giorgio Napolitano’s condolence message hailed her as a “high-level personality in the world of scientific culture” who also “represented a strong example of civil passion, leaving a noble fingerprint in public debate.”
The Italian news agency ANSA quoted family friend Marinella Chirico as saying Hack died in a hospital after being treated for heart problems.
Hack headed the observatory in Trieste, the first woman to hold that post, from 1964-87, and was a popular and frequent commentator in Italian media about discoveries in astronomy and physics.
An atheist who decried Vatican influence on Italian politicians, Hack helped fight a successful battle to legalize abortion in Italy. She unsuccessfully lobbied for the right to euthanasia and also championed gay rights. Among her victories was a campaign against construction of nuclear reactors in Italy.
Hack, an optimist with a cheerful disposition, studied the heavens in the firm belief that there was no after-life.
“I have no fear of death,” Hack once said in a TV interview. “While we are here, death isn’t. When there is death, I won’t be here.”
Hack and her widower, Florentine Aldo De Rosa, 93, had no children.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 06/30/2013