Named in honor of Warren Offutt (1928– ), on the occasion of his 70th birthday, 1998 Feb. 13. After a career as an engineering executive, he turned in his retirement to the astronomical applications of CCDs, considering in particular the contributions that can be made by amateur astronomers. At his observatory in New Mexico he has made key observations of several of the objects discovered in the Kuiper Belt in recent years, as well as of other comets and minor planets as faint as 22nd magnitude. His follow-up of S/1997 U 2, one of the two recently discovered satellites of Uranus, played a crucial role in the establishment of its orbit. (M 31297) _ _.