Lewis Edward Hitchner ’67

Lewis Edward Hitchner ’67 of Sandy, Utah, died on June 18 after a short battle with kidney cancer. He came to the College from Media, Pennsylvania, majored in mathematics, and was active in the DOC and Winter Carnival Council. After graduation Lew received a master of science in operations research from the University of California, Berkeley, and later earned a doctor of philosophy in computer science at the University of Utah. He became a computer and information sciences professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz until 1988 and later at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo for more than 11 years. From 1989 through 1993 he was a scientist at the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science at the NASA Ames Research Center. There he was the technical developer with the virtual planetary exploration project, an immersive, virtual reality system for exploration of Mars. Lew maintained a lifelong passion for skiing and hiking. Through the years he took extensive hiking trips to Bhutan, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Switzerland, and France and numerous camping and hiking trips across the western United States. After retiring in 2007 he skied in the White Pine Canyon of the Wasatch Mountains every day he could. He is survived by brother Ken and his wife, Lucinda; sister Sue; nephews and nieces Aleta, Liza, Kelly, Ted, and Jack; and great-nieces and great-nephew Maddy, Max, and Somi.