Audra served the Physics Department at SUNY, Stony Brook, in two different capacities, first as an associate for the Physics Teacher magazine, and  later as the secretary of the condensed matter physics group.  When she retired iin 1993, one of the biggest retirement parties in memory was held for her.  The photo at the right shows Audra, with her special guest, her son Mark Weiser, at this party.  Audra was much loved at the University (and everywhere else she lived or worked!)  We miss her very much.  The obituary below was published in the Three Village Times-Herald.

Obituary
Audra H. Weiser, 82, a longtime resident of Port Jefferson Station and a  driving force in the Setauket Presbyterian Church, died Saturday, June 8, 2002, at Stony Brook University Hospital from complications following heart surgery.

Born Audra Laverne Hunsaker in Ava, Missouri, on November 8, 1919, she was valedictorian of Ava High School in 1937 and an honors graduate of Drury  College in Springfield, Missouri, where she was editor of the school newspaper and a champion tennis player.

She was married in 1942 to David W. Weiser, a fellow Drury student she met when he interviewed her for a sociology paper. When her husband joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving in the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II, she went to work as a newspaper reporter in Springfield and for Douglas Aircraft in California.,

She later worked in the admissions department of the University of Chicago while her husband earned his Ph,D. in chemistry. After moving to Port Jefferson in 1968, she worked for the American Association of Physics Teachers in Stony Brook from 1975 through 1985. She was office manager for the organization for several years and then became advertising manager of its
internationally distributed journal The Physics Teacher.

Returning to her studies on a part-time basis, Mrs. Weiser earned a master's degree in Liberal Studies from SUNY Stony Brook in 1973. In 1985 she became executive secretary to three physics groups at the university, a post she held until retiring in 1993.

Her husband, who died of a stroke in 1988, was a chemistry professor and dean of faculty at Shimer College in Mt. Carroll, Illinois, before becoming a chemistry professor and administrator at Stony Brook.

Always keenly interested in politics and world events, Mrs. Weiser was active in the League of Women Voters and the Bread for the World Institute, an international organization for combating hunger. She volunteered at St. Paul's soup kitchen in Port Jefferson Station.

She had a lifelong passion for the arts and was a founder of Timber Lake Playhouse in Mt. Carroll, where she appeared in plays during the 1960s.  She worked for Theater Three in Port Jefferson and was an accomplished piano accompanist.

Her primary interest in Port Jefferson was her thirty-two-year involvement with the Setauket Presbyterian Church.  She had been a church deacon and elder, superintendent of the church school, and a member of the Membership Committee and the Christian Involvement Committee, which supports mission activities.

But her most fondly remembered role in her church was as a volunteer visiting sick and elderly congregants. A gregarious and warmhearted person, she spent much of her time helping church members attend services, keep medical appointments, and care for other daily needs.

A fellow member of the congregation, Helen Smith, recalled, "Audra would sit in church and if she heard the clergy say anybody was ill or had a problem, she would make notes about it in the bulletin and then she would do something
about it.

"Age had no limit with her -- young or old, she would be interested in you.  She had a way of making you feel you were the most important person in the world to her.  Everybody called her "Saint Audra." " (Mrs. Weiser, also known for her humility and irresistible sense of humor, would chuckle when she heard that description.)

She is survived by her oldest daughter, Ann Weiser Cornell, a writer and teacher who lives in Berkeley, California. Her two younger children, Mark Weiser, a computer pioneer known as "the father of ubiquitous computing" in California, and Mona Holmes, a seamstress and homemaker in New Jersey, both died of cancer in April 1999. Mrs. Weiser bore those devastating losses with remarkable and inspiring courage.

She is also survived by a sister, Albia Smith, of Mountain Grove, Missouri, and four grandchildren, Nicole Reich-Weiser of Sunnyvale, California; Corinne Reich-Weiser of Berkeley; and Joshua and Christopher Holmes of Budd Lake, New Jersey.

A memorial service was held at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 16, 2002, at the Setauket Presbyterian Church, followed by a reception.

The family suggests that donations in memory of Audra Weiser be made to the Setauket Presbyterian Church or to the Bread for the World Institute, 50 F Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20001.

back to former staff of Stony Brook University Physics Department
revised 9/27/2002 by P. B. Allen