EDWARD TRYON

TRYON--Edward P., the retired professor of physics at Hunter College of the City University of New York who developed the vacuum fluctuation theory of the origin of the universe, died on 11 December, aged 79. He succumbed rapidly to an acute illness following a few years of suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, he attended Cornell University as an undergraduate, and subsequently earned his PhD in physics at the University of California at Berkeley, where his supervisor was Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg. Ed served on the faculty of Columbia University before moving to Hunter College of the City University of New York (1971), where he was promoted to full professor. A colleague of his once opined that Ed Tryon "knew more math than the rest of the physics department put together." Professor Edward Tryon's most famous contribution to science was his 1973 paper in the journal Nature entitled "Is the universe a vacuum fluctuation?" Consistent with his clever wit and being a fine expositor, he included in that landmark paper the comment: "...I offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things that happens from time to time." In addition to early marriage and other relationships, Professor Edward Tryon had a long-term relationship with Professor Marcia Brody, who he first met in the Hunter College faculty lounge. Edward Tryon is survived by his niece Holly Kuykendall and her husband Ed Kuykendall, and by Marcia Brody and her adult children, Stuart, Ben and Erica. In addition to scholarly pursuits and his close relationships, Ed was an avid fisherman, and a skilled handyman. In his youth and middle-age he enjoyed tennis and dancing. After retirement, he was somewhat politically active. Edward was quite fond of cats, having taken in stray cats to live with him in his Manhattan townhouse and even crafting a heated outside shelter for one stray cat who was too skittish to be brought indoors.