Sundial honors YSU employee

Photo

Rick Pirko

A sundial memorial will be erected outside the YSU planetarium in his honor.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Rick Pirko was known as a passionate educator who spent three decades providing science outreach as the producer/technician at the Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State University.

A memorial service honoring his life will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Ward Beecher Planetarium, and his friends at the university are raising funds to build the Rick Pirko Memorial Sundial as a tribute to him. Pirko liked sundials and did classes on them, particularly incorporating them into the planetarium’s weekend Skywatch programs.

In addition to his public and school programs, Pirko supervised and mentored numerous college students, providing them with one of the most important educational experiences of their lives.

Pirko, 55, died Oct. 15 after suffering a heart attack a week earlier.

He is survived by his wife, the former Victoria Patterson, his mother and four brothers.

The sundial will be located just outside the planetarium doors. Donations may be sent to the YSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, 210 Lincoln Ave., Youngstown 44555.

Pirko was an accomplished photographer, and his aerial photographs of the Serpent Mound Archeological Site have been published by the Ohio Historical Society and displayed at The British Museum in London.

He was a licensed pilot and co-owner of an aircraft and provided hundreds of children between the ages of 8 and 17 with their first flight as a local organizer of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program.

He was also a merit badge counselor for the Astronomy and Aviation Merit Badges for the Boy Scouts of America.

A supporter of the arts, peace, social justice and the environment, Pirko provided photographic and technical assistance to the YSU Department of Theater and Dance, the Oakland Center for the Arts, the Ohio Supermaximum Players, the Valley Coalition for Peace and Justice and the YSU Recycling Center.

He was a co-creator of Dr. Ray’s Amazing Sideshow of Science, which merged the worlds of sideshow and science as a fun way to teach critical thinking and skepticism.

He and his wife grew organic vegetables and raised and trained dressage show horses on their 65-acre farm in Trumbull County.