Scott Evan Stachel

Scott Evan Stachel, born in Colorado Springs on January 7, 1955, left our planet this past August 22 while residing on his boat in the Dominican Republic. A graduate of Cheyenne Mountain High School, he went on to become a gifted and noted scientist. He initially attended Pomona College and UC Santa Barbara, studying psychology, pharmacology, and molecular biology. He continued his doctoral work at the University of San Francisco, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Gent (Belgium) where he made important discoveries in the virulent systems of soil bacteria. He did postdoctoral research at Genentech, UC Berkeley, and the University of Utah, and was a research associate of the CAMBIA Institute in Canberra, Australia. He later collaborated with associates at Stanford and Harvard.

In addition to a rich academic life, Scott was a world traveller. While in high school he learned wine serving in France and skiing in the Alps. At 20, in India, he picked up dysentery and was transported through Stalingrad to receive help in England. And while working on a kibbutz in Israel he saved a drowning man in the Red Sea. His other travels included Greece, Turkey, and Nepal; Fiji, Indonesia, and New Zealand; the Caribbean and Seychelle Islands; and Scandinavia. He resided in places as diverse as Belgium, Australia, Cape Town, and the Tetons of Wyoming. He was an avid horseman, skier, backpacker, kayaker, sailor, and naturalist.

Though only 59 at his time of departure, he lived a life full of ideas and adventures. He was a complex and loving person, and was quite proud of his daughters, Kaia Stachel-Zambryski and Shoshana Zambryski-Stachel, living respectively in Santa Barbara and Berkeley, as does their mother Pat Zambryski, a Professor at UC Berkeley and fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. Also surviving are his brother Jeff Stachel (Priscilla Barsotti Stachel), and Jeff's son Blake Stachel and daughter Jessa Kathryn Carey, who resides in New York City.

Scott's Memorial Service is tentatively set for Saturday, October 25 at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort. Further details are to follow. All who knew and loved Scott are graciously invited to attend.