In Passing

Los Altos, Calif.

Wolfgang Panofsky, Stanford physicist

Wolfgang Panofsky, who fled Germany as a teenager to become one of America’s foremost particle physicists, an outspoken arms-control adviser and the winner of major government honors, died Monday after a heart attack at his home in Los Altos, Calif. He was 88.

Panofsky was the founding director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, home of one of the most productive devices built in the last century to seek out the secrets of matter and energy.

The 2-mile-long machine drove electrons to great speeds, smashing them into other particles in a search for clues to ultimate physical reality. Research at Panofsky’s center led to many discoveries, including some for which scientists received the Nobel Prize.

His scientific, engineering and administrative abilities were credited with getting the great machine built and running beneath the eucalyptus groves of Northern California. Panofsky was also known for conscience and principle.

Hillsborough, Calif.

Robert Bruss, real estate expert

Robert Bruss, a real estate lawyer and broker whose nationally syndicated advice columns earned him the nickname “the Dear Abby of real estate,” died Wednesday at his home in Hillsborough, Calif., south of San Francisco. He had complications from colon cancer. He was 67.

Bruss wrote seven columns a week, including his “Real Estate Mailbag” question-and-answer feature. He also explained what he believed were revealing developments in real estate law and taxes, and reviewed books with real estate themes.

Besides his columns – which appeared weekly in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers – he also published two monthly newsletters.

His book “The Smart Investor’s Guide to Real Estate” (1981) has appeared in multiple editions.

Kenneth Harney, a housing and real estate columnist syndicated, by the Washington Post Writers Group, said Bruss’ consumer-oriented columns benefited from his legal education as well as his experience as an active investor in small-scale rental properties.