I just noticed this today and was sad to learn that Hans Bethedied on Sunday at the age of 98. Bethe was one of the last (probably the last now) great physicists from the "golden age of physics". In the 1920s and 1930s, he along with contemporaries Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and so many other names that I learned about in my early studies in theoretical physics helped shape theoretical physics as we now know it. In particular, Bethe contributed a great deal to nuclear physics and the understanding of solor physics, which later won him the Nobel Prize in 1967. Bethe was also the leader of the theoretical physics division of the atomic bomb project in the early-1940s.
I have always admired his work and was amazed at how prolific he was throughout his life. There is a collected works of 70 years available at Amazon that I would love to read at some point. He truly was the "physicists' physicist", touching on almost all aspects of physics. He will be truly missed.
