Ohio State alum Benjamin P. Burtt Sr. was a gifted teacher, writer, scientist, and naturalist, and also even a fencer. He won the NCAA men’s epee championship in 1942 as a Buckeye. But for a father, there probably aren’t many better ways to be remembered than what his son, Academy Award-winner Ben Burtt Jr., told the Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard.
Burtt Sr., a 50-year nature columnist for that paper and a professor emeritus of chemistry at Syracuse University, died Feb. 23 in Columbus, Ohio, at age 91.
(Burtt Jr. — “E.T.,” “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” etc. — on IMDb.)