Arnold J. Cantor

Physicist, Artist, Poet, and Naturalist Arnold Jules Cantor of Bloomfield CT (formerly of West Hartford, CT and Lexington, MA) passed away at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford on July 6th, 2020 of Covid-19 after a long struggle with dementia. Arnold was a distinguished scholar graduating Magna Cum Laude in Physics from Brooklyn College where he was President of the Physics Society. He earned a PhD in Physics from Harvard where he was a recipient of a Corning Glass Works Foundation Fellowship and a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Mu Epsilon honor societies. He applied his knowledge of lasers and aeronautics through his work at Sylvania, Mitre and United Technologies. He was not only a gifted and brilliant theoretical physicist, but also warm, loving, kind, funny and generous. He cultivated and engaged in lifetime loves of math, poetry, art and music. He leaves a body of poetry spanning sixty years which he shared on his website and at the Bloomfield Library poetry readings. Later in life, he engaged in a diversity of courses at the President's College at the University of Hartford as well as becoming an avid and skilled birder.  Inspired by Einstein (who he corresponded with while at Harvard), Shakespeare, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Arnold had a fiercely curious mind and worked to prove unsolved advanced mathematical theorems in his retirement years. Arnold was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, NY to Irving Cantor and Bella Rosenthal Cantor. He was the youngest and last living of his four siblings, Muriel Sanders, Norma Hirsch, Herb Cantor and Fred Cantor. Arnold married his beloved wife, Sylvia Seigel Cantor on July 15th, 1962. They celebrated 55 wonderful years together before Sylvia's passing in 2018. Truly devoted to each other, they shared a lifetime of friendship and love. He was cherished by his daughters, Leah and (Sharon) Molly Cantor, who celebrate his life and grieve his passing. He was adored by his many nieces and nephews and loved by his devoted circle of friends. Leah and Molly express their gratitude to the caregivers who helped make Arnold's life more wonderful in his final years.  Contributions are gratefully welcomed in Arnold's memory to American Jewish World Service, Alzheimer's Association, and his beloved Hartford Audubon Society.