Prominent UA physics laboratory manager and professor Roger Haar was taken off life support on Monday following a bicycle accident on July 11.

Haar, who was set to retire in August, started working for the UA department of physics in 1994. He was in charge of lab instruction for all undergraduate students taking physics courses, deciding which experiments would be done, testing instruments and training graduate assistants who taught the physics labs.

“The number of undergraduate students who were directly affected by his instruction on a given semester I would say would exceed 1,000,” said Sumit Mazumdar, physics department head and professor.

Students said that Haar loved what he taught and was knowledgeable about the labs that he managed. Former UA environmental science student Jenny Quijada also recalled that Haar once said “people who don’t ride bikes are just grumpy.”

Mazumdar said that since the physics department is small, Haar became like family to the department during his time there.

“In many cases I am aware that when the Ph.D. students come back to visit us, they made it a point of seeing [Haar],” Mazumdar said.

Although he could have retired in June, Haar chose to stay on for the summer to help train his successor.

“…We had wanted a certain amount of overlap between the new [lab manager] and Roger so that new person could learn everything about his job requirements from Roger,” Mazumdar said. “So it was to help us out that Roger agreed to postpone his retirement.”

Haar was dedicated to his job and the physics department and will be missed throughout the UA and Tucson community. 

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