FSU physics legend may be headed for prison
Nobel Prize winner John Robert Schrieffer was driving more than 100 mph when he crashed, killing another driver.
By DAVID KARP
Published August 10, 2005
Florida State University professor John Robert Schrieffer is known as a giant in the field of physics.
Former Gov. Lawton Chiles once heralded his genius. Colleagues showered him with honors. The crown prince of Sweden awarded him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1972, as trumpets blared.
But this week, Schrieffer appeared humbled in front of a judge in Santa Maria, Calif., for a crime of abject thoughtlessness.
Schrieffer acknowledged that he drove his Mercedes-Benz down Highway 101 at speeds of more than 100 mph, crashing into a van and killing 57-year-old Renato Catolos, a warehouse manager at General Dynamics.
A judge told Schrieffer he needs "a taste of state prison" for killing Catolos, of Ridgecrest, Calif., and injuring seven others in September 2004.
At the time of the crash, Schrieffer, now 74, had nine prior speeding tickets and was driving with a suspended license.
His Florida driver's license was suspended last year after he collected 18 points in 18 months, records show. Among his speeding tickets were a citation for going 94 mph in a 60 mph zone and 84 mph in a 55 mph zone.
He also failed to pay traffic fines five times and drove without insurance in 2004.
Schrieffer lives in Tallahassee, but on Sept. 24, 2004, he was driving from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, where he once worked as a professor at the University of California.
Schrieffer initially told investigators that a truck hauling a trailer had clipped his car and the van, according to the Santa Maria Times. He later admitted that he made up the truck account.
He pleaded no contest to felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence for crashing into the Toyota van. He also admitted causing great bodily injury to three people in the van.
In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to an eight-month sentence in county jail, rather than state prison.
But after hearing pleas from several relatives of the victims, Superior Court Judge Jim Herman said Monday he was not certain county jail was enough punishment.
"I think you need a taste of state prison," Herman said. "The tragedy of this case is that you're a bright man who has made great contributions to society. . . . It's a puzzle why you decided to drive high-performance cars at great speeds on public highways."
Herman sent Schrieffer to Wasco State Prison for examination by an expert who will determine whether state prison or county jail is appropriate. Schrieffer will return to court on Nov. 7 for sentencing.
In court Monday, Agnes Ysselstein, the oldest daughter of victim Renato Catolos, wept as she told the judge how much she missed her dad.
"My father wasn't there to walk me down the aisle," the recently married Ysselstein said.
"Mr. Schrieffer is a very intelligent man with no respect for the legal system," said the woman's husband, Joe Ysselstein.
Schrieffer cried while reading a short apology.
"I feel great remorse for your anguish and suffering," Schrieffer said. "I'm truly sorry."
At the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, where Schrieffer is chief scientist, lab director Gregory Boebinger sent an e-mail to colleagues about the case Tuesday.
"This is a terrible human tragedy, for the victims of the collision and their families, as well as for Bob and his family," Boebinger wrote. "Bob is truly a giant in modern physics and his contributions to the magnet lab are profound. I am deeply saddened by this tragedy."
Schrieffer is on leave without pay because of the case, FSU spokeswoman Browning Brooks said. He is married, with two daughters and a son.
Professor Leon N. Cooper of Brown University, who shared the Nobel Prize with Schrieffer in 1972, said he was stunned to hear of Schrieffer's problems.
"It is the kind of nightmare that everyone worries about," Cooper said.
He described Schrieffer as charming, open and exceedingly nice.
William G. Moulton, a professor emeritus of physics at Florida State, said Schrieffer had been ill for some time. Still, he remained an active researcher, he said.
"He was a tremendous mentor for the graduate students," Moulton said. "They loved him."
When his appointment to FSU was announced in 1991 by then-Gov. Chiles, Schrieffer said his favorite teaching assignment at the University of California was beginning physics for nonscience majors, a sort of "Physics for Poets," the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Schrieffer won the Nobel in 1972 with two others for offering a theory to explain superconductivity, the phenomenon of the complete disappearance of electrical resistance in substances at very low temperatures.
As a teenager, Schrieffer moved to Eustis, near Orlando. His father was an orange grove owner.
He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953 with a degree in physics and earned a doctorate in 1957 from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and holds seven honorary degrees.
Besides the Nobel Prize, he has won the National Medical of Science and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
"His contributions are monumental," FSU physics professor James Brooks said Tuesday. "That's about all there is to say."
Information from the Associated Press, Santa Maria Times, Orlando Sentinel and New York Times was used in this report.