Gerald T Garvey

Gerald T Garvey, a very well-known nuclear physicist, passed away on November 14 at the age of 89. He is succeeded by his beloved wife of 65 years Doris, their three wonderful children: Deirdre, Gerald, and Victoria. There are also 7 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. Doris was the joy of his life, a beautiful, intelligent and sexy woman (words he often used).

Gerry died knowing he had experienced a happy and successful life. From humble beginnings, to a remarkable career, marriage to a great woman and producing three beautiful children. Both his parents, Anne Williams (Garvey) and Jack Garvey had immigrated from the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland to the US in the early 1900s. They were wonderful loving hard-working parents. Gerald and his parents moved to Hartford, Conn. just before the outbreak of WWII. He grew up in Hartford as a happy youngster and teenager. He went on to Fairfield University where he ran track and earned a B.S. in physics. Upon graduation he moved to Boston where he learned that he had a talent for physics. That led to his going to Yale in 1958, marrying Doris in 1959 and receiving his PHD in 1963. He began his academic career serving as a faculty member at Yale and Princeton Universities, becoming a full professor at Princeton in 1969. As an Alfred Sloan Foundation Fellow from 1967 to 1969, he spent a year at Oxford University. In 1976 he left Princeton to become Director of the Physics Division at the Argonne National Laboratory. From 1979 through 1984 he was also a professor at the University of Chicago. In 1984 he moved to Santa Fe and became director of Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF). In 1990 he stepped down from that position and became a Laboratory Senior Fellow. From 1994 through 1996 he served as the Assistant Director for Physical Science and Engineering in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He was an active member of the American Physical Society, having been Chairman and Councilor of the Nuclear Physics Division. He retired from Los Alamos in 2001 but remained active in research. They moved to University House in Seattle in 2016 and he maintained an office at the University of Washington until 2019. During his career he authored over 200 papers and produced 11 PhD students.