A physics professor at the Colorado School of Mines, Morse previously worked for the Martin Co., in Baltimore, Md., where he helped develop a tiny nuclear-powered electrical generator. The top-secret project was made public on January 16, 1959, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower demonstrated the 5-pound, 5-watt generator on television. “We were dumbfounded,” Morse said in an interview more than 40 years later. “Apparently the president wasn’t told the project was classified. Or he did it to show up the Russians. I couldn’t even tell my wife about it.”
His “System for Auxiliary Nuclear Power” radioisotope thermoelectric generators have been used on many deep-space missions to power spacecraft far from the sun, where solar power cannot be used. The devices are secure enough to survive an explosion of the rocket carrying them; the first time that happened, the RTG was recovered and rebuilt for another mission. Before he died, Morse worked to bring war veterans to schools to talk to students. “Kids are learning about this aspect of our history through textbooks written by people who heard about it but never experienced it,” he said. “Teachers should invite these guys to reflect on what the war was really about by people who experienced it.” Jerome “Jerry” Morse died December 10 from lymphoma at age 90.