Eugene Shoemaker, 69, an astronomer who co-discovered the comet that slammed into Jupiter in 1994, was killed in a car accident yesterday in Australia during an annual trip to search for asteroid craters. Mr. Shoemaker died in a two-car accident near Alice Springs. His wife, Carolyn, another Lowell Observatory astronomer who shared in the Jupiter comet's discovery, was injured. Mr. Shoemaker was perhaps best known for helping to discover comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which broke up and spectacularly slammed into the giant, gaseous planet in 1994. Amateur astronomer David Levy was also on the team.
Dr. Robert C. Weaver, 89, an educator and economist who became the nation's first black Cabinet member when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1965, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. Called by some a "master builder of the Great Society," Dr. Weaver was a specialist on labor, urban renewal, federal aid to education as well as housing issues. Beginning in ++ 1933, he held numerous posts in federal and state government and with foundations and organizations. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the predecessor of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was active for many years in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and in 1960 was chairman of its national board of directors.
