Dr. Robert I. Hulsizer Jr., 88, died April 30 at Sherrill House, a nursing home in Boston.

Mr. Hulsizer was professor of physics emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a research scientist, teacher, author of physics curricula and texts, and chairman of the faculty at the institute. For many years, he and his wife Carol were housemasters of Ashdown House, a graduate residence.

As an experimental physicist, he specialized in the field of elementary particles. In that research, high-energy accelerators were used to drive subatomic particles into targets in a fluid-filled chamber. Mr. Hulsizer helped develop techniques for analyzing the underlying nature of the particles based on the bubble trails they produced in the impact.

He was born in East Orange, N.J., in November 1919. He received his bachelor’s degree from Bates College, his master’s degree in physics from Wesleyan University and his doctorate from MIT in 1948.

During World War II, he helped develop radar at the radiation lab at MIT. Among the applications he worked on were radar-guided bombsights that allowed bombers to find their targets through cloud cover, which was an important advance for wartime pilots who previously relied on visual sighting. After the war, he did research in cosmic rays by sending balloons to the top of the atmosphere.

During the Korean War, he was a charter member of a group of 13 scientists at the University of Illinois who conceived of the idea of a radar air defense system using what in 1951 was termed a “novel digital computer.” Mr. Hulsizer’s career developed alongside the early computers and he was deeply involved in finding ways to apply new computer technology to military systems, physics experiments and the teaching of science.

In 1964, Hulsizer came to MIT to teach physics and direct what became the Education Research Center, which was focused on new ways of teaching science and integrating the humanities and social sciences. For Mr. Hulsizer, teaching was an essential part of being a scientist. He was a tremendously popular and inspiring professor. For many years, he taught the 8.01 and 8.02 elementary physics courses required of all institute students, where he created many lively, vivid lectures and demonstrations that brought the subject to life

Ray Magliozzi, co-host of National Public Radio’s Car Talk, stated that Mr. Hulsizer was one of his favorite professors. “I only took one course with him but he made a tremendous impression on me,” he stated in a release. “He had a very gentle, non-imposing way of conveying complex concepts. I would say he gave me the confidence to tackle a few courses that I probably should have flunked.”

Mr. Hulsizer’s talent as a teacher sprung from his insights, deep empathy and his conviction that complex ideas can be made understandable to anyone. A student wrote of his class, “We wanted to learn because of his zeal and absolute enthusiasm for the subject. To learn from a man like him makes me feel really special. He is considerate, kind, highly intelligent and can relate to students even though he is decades older.”

In the 1960s, he was asked to join the Physical Sciences Study Committee, which created a curriculum that reshaped and revitalized the way physics is taught in American high schools. For his work on it, Mr. Hulsizer received the Excellence in Physics Education Award from the American Physical Society. In the 1970s, he and David Lazarus, a summer resident of Chilmark, wrote the high school text, The World of Physics.

Mr. Hulsizer’s dedication to students was evident outside the classroom. As housemasters, he and his wife Carol presided over a dorm of graduate students who were hungry for social contact. They hosted a popular weekly evening of ice cream and socializing. When they stepped down as housemasters, the space where it was held was renamed the Hulsizer room.

Mr. Hulsizer officially retired from MIT in 1986 and planned to live year-round in Chilmark where he had a second home. But before long, Mr. Hulsizer was called back to the institute to teach in the educational study group, where freshmen could work at their own pace, often much faster than the typical curriculum. Known to all as “Mr. Bob,” he would put on an apron and bake up a batch of cookies for the students before they talked physics.

In Chilmark Mr. Hulsizer was an active participant in community life, serving as chairman of the zoning board of appeals and the town affairs committee. An avid sailor, his devotion to the Vineyard dated from the l950s when he first sailed in Vineyard waters. Until recently, as skipper of Mariah, his beloved wooden Herreshoff 12, Hulsizer was an enthusiastic supporter of and competitor in the Menemsha Pond races.

From Kenneth Grahame’s classic The Wind in the Willows, Mr. Hulsizer many years ago adopted as his mantra “There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

While sailing always took precedence on race days, he also spent countless hours clearing brush at and tending his Chilmark property. He generously applied his academic skills to tutoring several up-Island students in math.

Mr. Hulsizer’s memory began to fail him in the early 2000s. He gave up teaching when he could no longer recall scientific formulae fast enough to stay ahead of his students. He was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia, an Alzheimer’s-like disease. In the last year of his life he was at Sherrill House, a nursing home in Boston.

Mr. Hulsizer is survived by his wife of 41 years, Carol Kasen Hulsizer. His marriage to Bernice L. Hulsizer ended in divorce in 1965.

He is survived by his children from his first marriage: Stephen Hulsizer and wife Elsie of Seattle, Wash., Ann Wymore of Jemez Springs, N.M., Morgan Jenkins and husband Bill Jenkins of Fredericksburg, Va., and Cynthia Hulsizer and husband Bob Bernahl of Philo, Ill. He is also survived by his stepchildren Elizabeth Ascher and husband Michael Yogman of Cambridge, Ellen Ascher of San Diego, Calif., and Steven Ascher and wife Jeanne Jordan of Newton; and grandchildren Adam Wymore, Sara and Robin Jenkins, Madeline and Alexandra Yogman, Jordan Ascher and Ana Maria Ascher.

A memorial gathering open to the public will take place on July 19 at 5 p.m. at Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark followed by a reception at the Chilmark Community Center. A Cambridge memorial will take place at the MIT Chapel on Oct. 19 at 3 p.m.

Gifts in memory of Mr. Hulsizer may be made to the Massachusetts Institute for Technology for the Robert I. Hulsizer Jr. Memorial Fund. Checks should be mailed to the Office of Memorial Gifts, MIT Room E19-370, 77 Massachusetts avenue, Cambridge MA 02139.