Dr. Richard H. Maurer, a physicist whose work helped spacecraft survive the radiation of deep space, passed on June 6, 2026, in Sarasota, Florida, after living with Parkinson's disease. He was 84.

He was born April 27, 1942, in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, to Samuel and Marion (née Hornsby) Maurer. He attended Long Island University on scholarship and graduated as valedictorian in 1964, then earned his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1970 under Raymond Willey. After postdoctoral work in cosmic ray physics at the Bartol Research Foundation (Delaware County, Pennsylvania) and seven years at AMP, Inc., where he learned accelerated environmental testing, he joined the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in 1981. He remained there for more than four decades as a member of the Principal Professional Staff.

At APL he was the radiation physicist on unmanned missions: he modeled the radiation environment a spacecraft would meet, set the requirements its hardware had to survive, and qualified the electronics against them. The type of critical work that is invisible when it succeeds.

He believed a broad physics background and a willingness to take on unfamiliar problems mattered more than specialization, and he said plainly that on a team of a hundred people, the goal of the team outranks any one person's ego. Colleagues and younger scientists found him generous with what he knew. He was preceded in death by his wife, Marian H. Maurer. He is survived by his sons, Jonathan Maurer and his wife, Katie, of Lewes, Delaware, and their son, Nathan; Dr. Andrew P. Maurer and his wife, Dr. Sara Burke, of Tucson, Arizona, and their children, Miles and Esme; and his stepdaughter, Sandra Wildes and her husband, David, of Verona, Wisconsin, and their children, Alex (Caroline), Connor, Christopher, and Ethan; and by his great-grandchildren, Kaiden and Charlotte.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the University of Pittsburgh's Richard Maurer Scholarship Fund, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, or the Parkinson's Foundation.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, August 15, 2026, at Hamilton-Breiner Funeral Home, 116 South Liberty Street, Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., followed by luncheon.