NavList:

I received an email yesterday with the sad news that Ed Popko has died. Ed contributed over 500 NavList messages during his eight years here. He was also an eager contributior to activities at NavList group meetings at Mystic Seaport Museum and also attended a number of my workshops there. He was a good friend to Stan Klein, who himself passed in January of 2019.

Ed Popko was fascinated by every mathematical topic he approached, and he loved celestial navigation, especially from a historical mathematical perspective. Lunars intrigued him endlessly! Certainly a super-nerd, Ed sometimes puzzled people with his slightly odd behavior. Today, I think many people would understand that he was somewhere "on the spectrum" ...or "neurodiverse". For an older generation, perhaps the expression "eccentric genius" covers it well enough.

Ed was always incredibly generous with his knowledge and equally generous with his time. He will be missed.

I'm attaching a screen capture of the email notice I received as well as a photo of him, surrounded by geometry, in 1969 that was included with the email notice.

Frank Reed
Conanicut Island USA

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