1939 – February 18, 1993
by Sam Storch, E.P. Hubble Planetarium
It is with great sadness that I must report the untimely pass of George Lovi. Those of us who had the pleasure of knowing him, learning from him, or merely reading his many articles, have lost a “giant” indeed. George was of course, known for his encyclopedia knowledge of the sky and its lore, but was also noted for expertise in such diverse fields as railroads, history, cartooning, languages (he spoke more than half a dozen), and even the Jewish Talmud. He wrote the “Ramblings” column in Sky & Telescope for 22 years, sharing his ability to bring together many seemingly diverse areas of astronomy into his chatty columns with tens of thousands of readers each month. As a unique and talented teacher, he shared his enthusiasm for astronomy with his classes, originally at the Vanderbilt Planetarium, later at the Jones Planetarium in Albertson, Long Island, and then at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. Known throughout the planetarium field for his work in design, installation, and star alignment of many planetarium instruments, he also did consulting work for Goto Optical Company of Japan and Minolta Planetariums. He was literally a ‘walking encyclopedic index’ for Sky & Telescope, and had a personal collection astronomical books, which probably numbers over 10,000 volumes.
George was born in Hungary in 1939 and came to this country as a young child. While in school he made his own planetarium, featured in an article over 30 years ago. His first job as a draftsman prepared him for celestial cartograghy. An acknowledged expert in the field, he produced many sky maps, from the long-running series in Sky & Telescope (George loved to boast that he was in the “centerfold of every issue,”) to the Uranometria 2000.0, produced with Wil Tirion of the Netherlands.
The diagnosis of cancer he received last year (1992) did not diminish George’s strength – on more than one occasion, he checked out of his chemotherapy regimen to be able to meet his classes and lectures at the Hayden Planetarium – he prized this joy right to his last day. The active written correspondence George kept up with astronomers from all over the world attest to the fact that we have lost a very special person – one who explored the highways and byways of the field, a ‘living star atlas’ who on his passing February 18, 1993, came that much closer to the heavenly spheres he toiled so hard to comprehend.