Ronald Dovaston Edge

February 3, 1929 – October 26, 2025

 

Dr. Ronald Dovaston Edge died, at age 96, in St. Paul, MN. He was preceded in death by his parents James and Mildred, his wife, Gertrude, first wife, Margaret, and two grandchildren. He is lovingly remembered by his two sons, Christopher and Michael, as well as by his four stepchildren, six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Born in Bolton, England, Edge was a founding professor of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He enjoyed teaching physics to people of all ages, even taking students to the State Fair to explore the science behind its attractions. In the late 1960s he hosted the weekly public television program, “Science Talks.” He went on to host Monty Python’s Flying Circus for South Carolina audiences, introducing and explaining the series’ distinctive British humor.

Edge joined AAPT in 1973 and served physics education with a many-faceted career held together only by string and sticky tape. He took the discards from the home and office, and turned them into worthwhile demonstrations of physical phenomena.

After completing his degree work through the Ph.D. at Cambridge he took an appointment at the National University of Australia. He settled at the University of South Carolina in 1958 and remained a member of their Physics Department while holding various visiting faculty positions at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Yale, Stanford, Munich, and the California Institute of Technology. His research remained in experimental nuclear physics, with an interest in the measurement of slow neutron radiation and meson physics. He was very active in the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society, serving as a board member and as chairman.

Edge’s interest, for which he is best known in the physics teaching community, involved the use of a little bit of nothing and turning it into some worthwhile physics apparatus. He saw a bit of physics in everything and could turn a full wastebasket into a curriculum complete with demonstrations, laboratory activities, and classroom notes for the instructor. Unlike many of his colleagues, he was not satisfied to simply pull a trinket from his pocket, show how it works, and trust people will remember it. He had to put his physics into print so that everyone could share in his enthusiasm for the phenomena of physics. These articles provided lesson plans for high school teachers, using everyday household objects to introduce physics concepts through simple, hands-on experiments. The collection was eventually published as a book, which became one of AAPT’s bestsellers.

Edge had a large number of notes published in the American Journal of Physics and served on the editorial board of the Resource Letters. He was best known as a contributing editor to The Physics Teacher with the popular column, “String and Sticky Tape Experiments, where he also served on the editorial board.

He was awarded the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT in 1986 and in 2014 he was recognized as a member of the inaugural cohort of AAPT Fellows.

In 1994 he was elected to the AAPT Presidential chain serving as Vice President 1995-96, President Elect 1996-97, and President 1997-98. Edge served on the AIP Liaison Subcommittee for Public Policy from 2004-05.

A champion of physics education, Edge organized the first American high school team to participate in the International Physics Olympiad, and he brought several teams to international competition over the years.

Described as the “Forest Gump of Physics,” Edge crossed paths with many famous figures -- including, for example, J. Robert Oppenheimer -- and he was often present at historic moments, even if he was not the one making the discovery. He sat with Crick and Watson for years, sipping tea as they worked out DNA in their lab next door to his. For those intrigued by names such as Maxwell, Bragg, Dirac, or Stephen Hawking, or by discoveries like the positron (anti-matter), DNA, hemoglobin, or continental drift, Edge’s book "Tea at the Cavendish" offers entertaining anecdotes from his remarkable experiences.

Whether playing accordion at Soda City Market, sharing stories, or setting off on new adventures, Edge brought a sense of lightness and delight to everyday life.

Read more: Obituary 
The Physics Teacher Distinguished Service Citation.