Jack Horkheimer Dies

August 28, 2010: The host of Public Television's "Star Gazer" show, Jack Horkheimer aged 72, died on August 20, 2010,   of a respiratory ailment, according to a spokesman for the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetariums.

Horkheimer was best known as the creator, writer and host of public television's "Star Gazer, " the 30-year weekly TV series on naked eye astronomy. Seen on PBS stations nationwide, "Star Gazer" reached millions of people, helping create a love of the stars for several generations of enthusiasts. The program started on the air in 1976 on PBS stations in Florida. It would go on to become a national program in 1985. Horkheimer’s craggy voice combined with his flamboyant, show-biz style made him a unique and internationally recognized pioneer in popularizing naked-eye astronomy.

Born Foley Arthur Horkheimer on June 11, 1938, he grew up in Wisconsin, where he began a promising career as a jazz organist, nightclub entertainer, actor and playwright. 

He came to Miami in 1964 after studying pre-med and theater at Purdue University. Doctors had recommended a warm, humid climate for a degenerative lung condition that plagued him all his life.

His father was mayor of Randolph, Wisc., for 24 years, and wanted his son to become an athlete - impossible due to his health.

"They thought I had asthma, but I can tell you this: Until I was 18 years old, I didn't know what it was to be without pain, " he told the Miami Herald.

At one hospital, he was put in a lead-lined room and bombarded with X- rays. He developed radiation sickness and his hair fell out.

He had to sleep on an inclined bed so he didn't drown in his own lung fluids.

A visit to the Miami planetarium one night transformed him.

Horkheimer was executive director of the Planetarium for over 35 years. He was also a recognized media celebrity, often being the foremost commentator on all astronomy related happenings nationwide.

Horkheimer had actualy been a fixture at the Miami Planetarium for more than 45 years, where he began as a volunteer and served as its executive director since 1973. But he'll be remembered most for his exuberant and often zany television persona, who helped everyone appreciate the breadth and depth of eyeball-only astronomy.

Since Horkheimer and longtime planetarium colleague Bill Dishong produced several episodes in advance, the last one to feature Horkheimer — his 1, 708th — will air the first week of September and feature the Summer Triangle. As always, he begins with a chortling "Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers and ends with his signature phrase "Keep looking up!" You can download any of the past year's episodes as well.

Horkheimer narrated several solar eclipses for CNN, led eclipse expeditions, and co-organized the first supersonic Halley's Comet Chase aboard four Concordes.

Never taken seriously by professional astronomers - and sometimes reviled as clownish - he would go to any lengths to promote a show. At a 1978 news conference, he dressed up as the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and served reporters champagne out of silver teapots.

But he nearly destroyed his career when mayhem broke out at a 1982 "Doomsday Party" in Crandon Park. The event was based a book predicting that March 10 would bring natural disasters all over the world due to an alignment of the planets. But a radio promotion billed it as an all-night rock concert, and 3, 000 kids showed up. Dozens were injured, and Horkheimer's reputation took a beating.

Beyond the enthusiasm he projected over the air waves, Horkheimer had encouraged kids to get involved in astronomy, most notably through annual $1, 000 awards given to aspiring young amateur astronomers through the Astronomical League.

It's not yet clear how or if his show will continue. Tony Lima of the Miami Science Museum, home to the planetarium, says the staff is still trying to make sense of Horkheimer's passing, adding, "We at the Museum all feel this loss quite a bit." At least one month of shows will be hosted by Chris Trigg, another staffer at the Miami facility.

Horkheimer's inspiration will live on. In 2007 Cricket Books published a collection of comic strips (first seen in Odyssey magazine) featuring his madcap take on viewing the sky. Colorful to the end, "Horky" offers this amusing, self-penned epitaph in his online bio:

"Keep Looking Up was my life's admonition,
I can do little else in my present position."