Leonard Reiffel

Reiffel died of complications from pancreatic cancer in Chicago on April 15, 2017. He was survived by his second wife Nancy Reiffel, and sons Evan and David.

Reiffel also worked as an artwork authenticator for the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, investigating the authenticity of work by Édouard Manet in 2002. In 1979, he published the science fiction novel The Contaminant. He also acted as a consultant to the governments of Belarus and Ukraine following the Chernobyl incident; this experience led him to write an unpublished second novel about nuclear terrorism.

Reiffel's work on radio and television has included Backyard Safari, Dimensions on Tomorrow's Living and The World Tomorrow. Backyard Safari was nominated for an Emmy Award, whilst Reiffel was honored with a Peabody Award in 1968 for his work on The World Tomorrow. Reiffel's time as a broadcaster led to him developing the telestrator, a device for drawing over still or moving video images; the device is now commonly employed by American football broadcasters while discussing plays. Reiffel first used the telestrator as part of Backyard Safari before convincing WBBM-TV weatherman John Coughlin to use it as part of his forecasts; it was from there that sports anchor Johnny Morris introduced its use to sports broadcasting.

Reiffel was involved in several positions in NASA's Apollo program, moving from being a consultant on the possibility of life on the Moon to become deputy director of the project, a post he held from 1965 to 1969. During this time, Reiffel was also put in charge of Project A119, a United States Air Force project intending to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon. Reiffel worked alongside Carl Sagan and Gerard Kuiper on the project. Reiffel also chaired the Interagency Manned Space Flight Experiments Board for several years, a body which worked alongside NASA, the United States Air Force, and the United States Department of Defense.

Leonard Reiffel (September 30, 1927 – April 15, 2017) was an American physicist, author and educator. Born in Chicago, Reiffel was an electrical engineering student for a number of years before entering into research fields. He collaborated with Enrico Fermi, Carl Sagan, and members of Operation Paperclip.

Leonard Reiffel was born in Chicago on September 30, 1927. His father was Carl Reiffel, a silversmith credited with inventing a slide saxophone. His mother, the former Sophie Miller, was a district superintendent in the Chicago public school system. The younger Reiffel attended Theodore Roosevelt High School, before earning a bachelor's and master's degree as well as a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology between 1947 and 1953.