Kirk Thomas Arndt

Kirk Thomas Arndt

Santa Barbara - Kirk Thomas Arndt, an engineer and sailor who contributed to the discovery of the Higgs Boson and crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by sailboat, died Wednesday. He was 59.

He passed away while sailing a Wet Wednesday race with dear friends in his home port of Santa Barbara.

An alumnus of Santa Barbara High School, Kirk attended the University of Hawaii and Santa Barbara City College. He graduated in 1991 from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Physics that developed into an illustrious career.

Working with CLEO and the CMS group, Kirk was a mechanical engineering lead on the Large Hadron Collider, and a contributor to the discovery of the elusive Higgs Boson particle in 2012.

Kirk was a lifelong sailor, spending most of his childhood aboard the family's 50 ft wooden ketch, the Mareve. In addition to the world's two largest oceans, he crossed countless bays and lakes as a racer, and he cruised with his family.

He was born June 22nd 1959 to Beverly "Boots" Arndt and the late Don Arndt in Santa Barbara, California.

Kirk is survived by Gale Lockwood, his wife of 28 years, their two children, Gus and Haley, his mother, Boots, and brothers Kevin, Kent and Eric. The family's two dogs are Izzy and Jelly.

Future memorial services are to be planned at Oxford University.

For remembrance and donations please support the Purdue Sailing Club, which Kirk coached for between 2009-2012, by going to https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/HRI7CG6XB5i19mGxjs7Ra5s?domain=bit.ly, select "other," and fill in "Purdue Sailing Club."