George Pimbley

George Herbert Pimbley, 86, was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Helen and George Herbert Pimbley. He received his A.B. in mathematics at Western Reserve. He went into the Navy in 1943 attending Midshipman School University of Norte Dame, Harvard University and M.I. T. for training in radar. He served mainly in the Pacific and was aboard the Franklin when it was bombed. After he was separated from the Navy, he stayed in California and worked at Navy Electronics in San Diego and then obtained his M.A. at University of California in Los Angeles. He decided to try going to New Mexico and work at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. He was accepted into the Theoretical Division. He met his wife, Patricia Riker in Los Alamos and they were married in 1951 in the chapel of Princeton University. After a period of time he was accepted at New York University for further work in mathematics and received his PhD in 1957 from the Courant Institute there. Of the three men who left at that time, he was the only one who returned. In Los Alamos he was founding member of the Trinity in the Hill Episcopal Church where he sang in the choir and was a vestryman. At one time he was president of the Choral Society. He had lifetime appreciation of good music and could identify most if it when it was played. He had played trumpet in high school. He had interesting stories about his family living through the depression. He retired from the Laboratory in 1987 be he had spent some times working with friends in Geneva, Scotland, Oxford, Koln, Bielefeld, Dublin, and also Santiago, Chile. He also spent a year working at the National Science Foundation in Washington.
In 1957 he and his wife went to Tennessee and adopted three children: Robert living in Post Falls, Idaho, Robbin living at the home, and Deborah Gramlich living with her husband Mark in Central Point, Oregon. George also has a grandson, Burt Pimbley in Carlsbad, who has two children Destiny and Dylan. George did attend the Laboratory seminars until he was discovered to have Adult Hydrocephalus which necessitated a shunt. He still was able to go on many cruises and visit friends and relatives. He became quite ill on Sunday, July 6, 2008 and entered Los Alamos where he was given excellent care by the staff in I.C.U. He was transferred to Sombrillo and was given good care there and transferred back to the Emergency Room on August 14, 2008 when he had trouble breathing.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia, his children, his sister, Carol Barrett in Colorado Springs, his brother Walter and his wife Ellen in Vestal, NY, and many nieces and nephews and brothers-in-law, John Huck, David Riker, and sisters-in-law Nancy Panofsky, Jean Huck, Pat Riker, and Kitty Thompson. His brother Tom, his grandson, Russell, and his parents have all died. George was a member of PiMu Epsilon Mathematics Honorary Fraternity, and the American Mathematics Association. He received a Presidental Unit Citation.
A Memorial Service will be conducted at 11:00am Friday August 22, 2008 at Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church in Los Alamos. The urn will be placed at the church Columbarium. His family requests that memorial contributions be made to charities of your choice.

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