Charles Corbató '54, Ph.D. '60

Charles Corbató '54, Ph.D. '60, of Dublin (and previously Upper Arlington), Ohio, passed away July 28, 2021, at the age of 89.

An L.A. native, Corbató was the son of an early UCLA faculty member in the Spanish & Portuguese Dept., Hermenegildo Corbató, and attended nearby University High School.

As an undergraduate, he competed in track for the Bruins, but opted not to continue after his sophomore year due to both the academic rigor of the upper level coursework and the arrival of a heralded phenom from the Central Valley, future Olympian Rafer Johnson '59.

Corbató earned his B.A. in geophysics and Ph.D. in geology. He then served as a faculty member in the UCLA Department of Geology until 1966 when he moved to Ohio State University.

He particularly enjoyed doing and teaching field geology, starting with his UCLA undergraduate field course near San Luis Obispo and later continuing with his own field work in the San Fernando Valley and the White Mountains of eastern California, the Blue Glacier in Washington State and the mountains of central Utah.

As noted in his legacy.com obituary, Corbató's most memorable geology field expedition came during the 1972-3 austral summer when he was a leading member of an OSU field party that worked and camped for seven weeks in Antarctica to map a remote section of the Transantarctic Mountain Range. At an elevation of 1,730 meters and just 550 kilometers from the South Pole, Mt. Corbató, the highest point in the Duncan Mountains, is named in his honor.

Corbató is survived by his wife of 64 years, Patricia (Ferg) Corbató; sister-in-law, Emily Corbató of Plum Island, Massachusetts; children, Steven Corbató of Portland, Oregon, Barbara Corbató (Martin Hogan) of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Susan Conrad (Glenn Voelz) of Bend, Oregon; grandson Andrew Corbató of Houston, Texas; and granddaughters, Esi and Mansah Voelz of Bend.