Obituary of Mael Melvin

Professor Mael Melvin died peacefully at his home in Santa Barbara October 1st, 2014, at the age of 101, surrounded by his wife Sophia and two sons Jonathan and Paul. He lived a full life, with many academic and rewarding pursuits, but most importantly, he had a wonderful 68 year marriage, raised two very grateful sons, and enjoyed his five wonderful grandchildren (Jonathan and wife Rosie have children Julia and Sarah; Paul and wife Barbara have children Jeremy, Alyssa, and Ryan). He met Sophia while teaching Physics at Columbia University in 1946, and then moved to an island in Puget Sound, Washington with his young family where he lived in nature and worked on symmetry principles of Physics with support from the Fulbright Foundation. Thereafter, he taught and conducted research in various areas of Physics, ranging from elementary particles to cosmology. He held long-term professorships at Florida State University and Temple University, and visiting positions at Princeton, Caltech, Tata Institute in India, UCSB, and other academic institutions. His work covered theoretical principles and mathematical models, including symmetry principles evidenced in elementary particles, and theoretical cosmological structures arising from general relativistic equations. His passions included history of science, and understanding our lives in this world from the spiritual as well as the scientific viewpoints. He was fanatic about healthy eating, which must have contributed to reaching the age of 101. In his older years he always conveyed to his family, friends, and to the wonderful caregivers in Santa Barbara who helped him after he had a stroke five years ago, the appreciation of being together and the great warmth of his feelings. We are sad for his passing, but grateful that we could be together for his final journey, and that the journey was peaceful.