“Dear Charlie,” each letter begins.

They go on to talk about kids, explore recent theoretical ideas and even ask whether reimbursement for a recent trip to the University of Maryland was coming through. Job references are also a big topic—typical for correspondence between two academics.

Far from typical was their author: Stephen Hawking, the brilliant physicist who became a popular author, a science advocate and an international symbol of perseverance in the face of his crippling Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The letters—donated by their recipient, UMD Physics Professor Emeritus Charles Misner—were auctioned to create an endowment in the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS).

Hawking wrote the letters between 1967 and 1970. He’d hit it off with Misner, a fellow physicist studying Einstein’s theory of gravitation, while the American scientist was on a fellowship at the University of Cambridge.

Soon after, Hawking brought his family to Maryland to stay at Misner’s home and spend time at UMD. Misner’s research group was immersed in the theoretical study of gravitation, while UMD Physics Professor Joseph Weber was leading a charge to experimentally detect gravitational waves in space-time—something predicted by Einstein’s theory that even Einstein doubted could be found.

In correspondence that followed the visit, among other things, Hawking asked Misner for job referrals. “Not that I was smarter than him—but I was older,” Misner cracked in a recent interview.

Even in the late ’60s, despite the increasing physical limitations brought on by his ALS, it was clear Hawking was headed for greatness, Misner says. Through the years, the two and their families continued meeting up during fellowships, at conferences and elsewhere, although communication for Hawking became more and more labored, Misner says. Hawking died in March 2018.

Misner’s wife, Susanne, had seen a story in the news about a signed copy of Hawking's thesis selling for a substantial amount of money. When the Department of Physics was seeking funds for a memorial to Weber—who failed in his personal quest to observe gravitational waves, but laid the critical groundwork for a later experiment that would succeed—Susanne remembered the letters that her husband and Hawking had written to each other.

Departmental staff helped ransack his overstuffed office, finally turning up four letters that were donated to the university and ultimately auctioned by Christie’s, which was coordinated by the CMNS development team and UMD’s Office of Gift Planning. The auction closed on May 23, 2019, and the letters sold for a total of 228,750 GBP. After commissions, the proceeds of $212,000 were used to create an endowment in honor of Weber to support research in gravitational physics. The timing of the gift was especially meaningful to Misner as it was completed shortly before his wife’s passing in September 2019.

“The Weber Endowment for Gravitational Physics Fund allows us to recognize former UMD Physics Professor Joseph Weber’s early role in establishing the field of gravitational wave astronomy plus ensure that researchers will be able to learn from and build on Weber’s incredible body of work for generations to come,” says Steve Rolston, chair of the Department of Physics. “With the endowment income, we will be able to host lectures and workshops plus partner with UMD’s history department and the American Institute of Physics to collect oral histories and make the Weber archives accessible and indexed for future uses.”

Explore the Possibilities of a Future Gift

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