The recent annual anniversary of seismologist and physicist Charles Richter’s birth - on April 26, 1900 in Overpeck - is a good time to remind current residents in his native county of his famous contributions, said Anne Jantzen, co-founder of Butler County’s Friends of Charles Richter Society.
“I felt a need to keep Richter’s name and legacy alive — especially here in Butler County where he was born and spent his early years,” said Jantzen of Richter, who died in 1985.
“I got interested in Charles Richter because I am a volunteer with the Friends of Chrisholm and the Chrisholm Farmstead MetroPark, which is representative of the Amish Mennonite settlement that once thrived here in Butler County.”
“Charles was born into this community and we talk about him as one of our ‘notables’ - descendants of the original Amish pioneers who became more widely known because of their contributions to our world,” said Jantzen.
Moving to California with his family at age 11, the seismologist and physicist went on to invent a way of rating the severity of earthquakes by measuring the shock waves they produced.
Although his calculation formulas were supplanted by a different method of gathering and interpreting data in the 1970s, the scale remained the same and the earthquake measurements are often still referred to as “the Richter scale.”
An Ohio Historical Marker at the roundabout – designated with signage as “Richter Roundabout” at the intersection of Busenbark and Trenton roads in Trenton – is a short distance from Edgewood Middle School.
There, science teacher Brittany Warmoth teaches students about the famous scientist from their community who was the first to measure one of the earth’s most powerful forces.
“It’s cool that he was born here. The students know about the Richter roundabout and they know he was from here, so I include earthquakes in our curriculum,” said Warmoth.
For more information on Richter’s life go to the group’s website.
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