Frank Samuel Stephens Jr.

Frank Samuel "Bud" Stephens Jr., 93, of North Manchester, Indiana, died peacefully Sunday, August 18, 2024, at Timbercrest Healthcare Center in North Manchester. He was born on June 30, 1931, in Rensselaer, Indiana, to Frank S. and Lola Coe (Beck) Stephens.
Frank grew up in Akron and Wabash, Indiana with his parents and his older sister Jane. After graduating from Wabash High School in 1948, he studied chemistry at Oberlin College, and went on to obtain a PhD in Nuclear Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1955. Although he studied chemistry, he had a passionate interest in nuclear and particle physics. He spent his working career at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, first as a Research Chemist (1955-1957), then a Senior Scientist (1957-1995) and became a Distinguished Scientist in 1995. During his career he led research groups of scientists from around the world. He was highly regarded as a lecturer. His work revolved around the study of the nucleus using gamma-ray spectroscopy. He was a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen in 1959. During a sabbatical year in Munich in 1970, he discovered a new way that some nuclei generate angular momentum. In 1980 he was awarded the Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics by the American Physical Society in recognition of his work. He went on to conceive of and design the most efficient high-resolution gamma-ray detector, which was built in 1995. He retired in 1997.
In 1959 Frank married Mary Richardson, and together they raised a daughter, Carol Marie. In 1982 he married Marie-Agnes Deleplanque. He was an avid outdoor enthusiast and particularly loved backpacking in the Sierras and hiking in the woods of Indiana. He and Marie-Agnes traveled extensively around the world, first for professional conferences and later visiting all seven continents on a variety of adventures. He enjoyed their second home in the Pyrenees mountains of France, where Marie-Agnes grew up, and visiting with her family there. They also built a vacation home in the High Desert near Mono Lake, east of Yosemite where they would fish, hike, and watch the sun set over the Sierra Nevada mountains. He took numerous trips with his grandchildren. Frank loved listening to classical music and reading.
Frank is survived by his wife, Marie-Agnes Denise Stephens of North Manchester; daughter, Carol (Rob) Sylvester of Chico, California; and two grandchildren, Matthew and Megan Sylvester, both of Chico, California; nephew, Carl (Debra) Fritsch of Minneapolis, Minnesota; and niece, Nancy (Bernard) Leipzig of Waban, Massachusetts. He was preceded in death by his parents; sister Jane Fritsch; and grandson Nicholas Sylvester.
Funeral services will be 2:00 p.m., Friday, August 23, 2024 at Grandstaff-Hentgen Funeral Service, 1241 Manchester Avenue, Wabash, with Rev. Lois Shattuck officiating. Burial will be in Falls Cemetery, Wabash. Friends may call 1-2 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Mono Lake Committee.
The memorial guest book for Frank may be signed at www.grandstaff-hentgen.com.