Approximately 75 friends, family, DU students and administrators gathered last week in Evans Chapel at a memorial service to honor Mario Iona, a distinguished emeritus professor at DU. Iona died on Feb. 27.

Herschel Neumann, professor and associate chair of the Astronomy and Physics Department, began the service with remarks about Iona.

“It is so fitting that we are here on the University of Denver campus today to talk about, to celebrate Mario.

His devotion to our department, to our university, and to our discipline was simply incredible.”

Neumann went on to explain Iona’s dedication to DU.

“There is the tangible evidence of the student lounge in the Physics Building, an enduring gift by Mario and his family to present and future students, in daily use. Less tangible but equally enduring are his numerous contributions to so many of us, as a mentor and a friend.”

In an e-mail that Iona’s son Steve wrote summarizing his father’s life, he explained his father as, “a rather stereotypic physics professor. To him ‘Casual Friday’ meant wearing a lab coat rather than a suit coat.”

Iona enjoyed a long and varied career, teaching on two continents and at four universities.

He focused on correctly teaching physics for over 60 years and authored over 500 publications, many of which appeared in The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics.

He served on the journal’s editorial board and wrote a long-running column called, “Would You Believe…” where he described textbook errors and misleading statements that he found in almost every science textbook.

The American Association of Physics Teachers honored Iona with a Distinguished Service Citation in 1971 and its Millikan Award for his contributions in the teaching of physics in 1986.

Steve Iona wrote, “It was his early work in cosmic ray research that brought him to Denver from Chicago.”

Iona worked on neutron diffusion research at Chicago.

He later worked on cosmic ray research, collecting data from equipment launched with large weather balloons.

He continued his cosmic ray research when he moved to the DU community and served as the manager of their High Altitude Laboratory on Mt. Evans.

Iona was born in Berlin at the beginning of World War I. He completed graduate work in Vienna before emigrating to the United States and continuing his academic work at the University of Uppsala and at Chicago.

However, Steve Iona recalls, “The University of Denver was his life.

He served almost 40 years there on the faculty: teaching almost all the physics offerings at some time and serving on countless committees, boards and panels for the university.”

While at the university, Iona funded the establishment of a society of physics students, Sigma Pi, Sigma student lounge housed in the DU Physics Building.

Iona is survived by his wife, Nancy; daughter Ann and son Steve. Steve currently teaches a General Physics Course at DU.