Philip Eugene Wigen, Professor of Physics emeritus at The Ohio State University, died on September 23, 2026, in Santa Rosa, California. He was 93.

Philip was born on May 11, 1933, at the family home in the wheatfields of Lacrosse, Washington. Third of five children, he was a sociable farm boy who showed a lifelong curiosity about the world around him. He married his high-school sweetheart, Bonnie Laura Ackerman, in 1954 while an undergraduate at Pacific Lutheran College. Conversations with encouraging teachers were important turning-points in his life, leading him eventually to earn a doctorate in Physics at Michigan State University in 1960. 

After a brief stint in the Bay Area, Phil and Bonnie moved with their three daughters to Columbus, Ohio, where he would spend the next 35 years on the faculty of OSU. Philip combined a lively sense of humor with a love of challenging work, whether physical or intellectual. He traveled widely over the course of his long career, and one of his annual projects was the holiday letter through which he and Bonnie kept in touch with family, friends, and colleagues from across the world. 

In retirement, he spent many hours organizing the thousands of photographs he had taken over the years. A cabin at Lake Coeur d’Alene where he extended family gathered every summer was another source of deep pleasure. He never lost his attachment to the Palouse. Philip was predeceased by Bonnie, his beloved wife of 64 years; brothers Richard Wigen and Lester Keith Wigen; sister Beverly Wigen Hyde; and foster daughter Ruth McCoy. He is survived by his devoted companion in widowhood, Lauren Somma; sister Janet Wigen; daughters Beth Wigen (John Toccalino), Kären Wigen (Martin Lewis), and Sandra Wigen (Patrick Gluntz); seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and treasured nieces and nephews.

His remains will join those of his ancestors and his wife in the cemetery at Selbu Lutheran Church in Lacrosse. A memorial service will take place there in summer 2027.