Roger Woodward Bland

Roger Woodward Bland passed away in his home in San Francisco after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Roger was born in Southern California to Gwynn and Marjorie Bland. An intrepid family, they lived several places, including the wilds of the Los Padres National Forest, before moving north to Redding, where Gwynn taught math at Shasta College. Roger attended Cal Tech on full scholarship, then received his PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. He would spend his long professional career in nuclear physics chasing the elusive quark, then pivoting to study underwater acoustics.

While in Berkeley, he met Sally Wilson playing violin in a string quartet. That set in motion a life of travel and adventure. After their wedding, in which Roger wore striped bell bottoms and Sally a dark green velvet gown, they lived five years in Paris, Geneva, and Glasgow. During his several post-docs, Roger learned to mix vinaigrette and hunted for Boletus edulis. He memorized the codes for all 101 French departments, became fluent in French, and adopted the French practice of using a fountain pen.

Roger and Sally returned to the States with two children. A professorship at San Francisco State University came next, followed by two more kids. Together, in their rambling old house on 12th Avenue in San Francisco, Roger and Sally built a life of storybook-level warmth, hospitality, conviviality, and intellectual depth that has touched countless people. Roger was a patriarch and surrogate father to many.

Professionally, he never stopped. He had that quality of the true scientist, genuine curiosity. Aside from his work at SFSU, he was on staff at the Tiburon Romberg Estuary and Ocean Science Center, studying how underwater disturbances affect marine life. His career also brought him to the Universities of Paris and Glasgow, an underground lab in a tunnel leading from France to Italy, and the famous particle accelerator CERN, in Switzerland.

A beloved professor and colleague, he was given a teaching award and contributed to scholarly articles. He mentored many graduate students and only stopped working months before his death.

He maintained a strong interest in his four children's projects, helping to build decks, fix cars, install solar panels, hold babies, and read manuscripts. Proficient technically and intellectually, he provided friends and family with routine computer support services, oversight in homebuying and tax filing, and help understanding Plato's The Republic.

Roger set a high bar for moral and ethical standards.

He also liked fun-especially if it involved a bit of danger, such as gargling liquid nitrogen at the physics department holiday party, chumming for sharks from the leaky family fishing skiff, or bringing his children swimming with snapping turtles in the Mississippi River.

For the past 20 years, Roger and Sally have traveled to Europe every spring, often with close friends, walking from village to village, getting lost and spending hours poring over maps beside the trail. Last May, he climbed his final mountain, a small peak in Brisighella, Italy. May we all be so adventurous to the end.

Roger leaves behind his wife, Sally Wilson Bland; his children, Michael, Emma, Alastair, and Andrew; grandchildren Everett, Cate, Finn, and Ollie; his sister, Barbara Walker; his niece, Antonia Walker; many nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws; and a dog named Posey.