On the night of August 23 and into the early morning hours of August 24 , 1970 , Fassnacht was in the lab taking care of unfinished work because he and his family were slated to leave for a vacation in San Diego , California . His lab was located in the basement of Sterling Hall . He was in the process of cooling down his dewar with liquid nitrogen when the explosion occurred . Rescuers found him face down in about a foot of water . The cause of death , determined from the autopsy , was internal trauma
Sterling Hall
Sterling Hall bombing
Robert Fassnacht