Sally was my “first and only true love,” the love of my life. She taught me and our five children the true meaning of love. She was a living example of how a life should be lived. She will never be forgotten!
George Jelniker
Stephanie Futro
My mother, Stephanie, was a free spirit. She was remembered by everyone she met. Whether the impression she left was good or not, she was unforgettable. She had an eclectic taste in everything – clothes, people, furnishings, pets… Stephanie fancied herself to be a gypsy, and artist, a poet, and a good hostess. I still have many paintings of hers in my home. She hated her photo being taken because she liked to leave her mark in other ways. She loved to talk! And smoke! And drink coffee! She was a wild one! Had she lived to see her three grandsons, they would have had quite the adventures with her. She loved a good adventure, juicy gossip, and scruffy men. She was buried in a wild garden – which since her death has been redone. Very “Stephanie,” as she never stayed in one place too long.
Alvis Dunn
Michael Groves
Michael Don Groves died February 24, 2016 in Boulder, CO at the age of 80.
Born May 28, 1935 in Boulder, he also lived in Carterville, IL and Slidell, LA before settling his family in Boulder in 1973. He graduated with a B.A. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign. Mike later received his M.A. in Aeronautical Engineering from University of Colorado. He worked at the Chrysler Corporation where he was an integral part of the NASA Apollo missions engineering team. He later worked for Lockheed Martin as a program manager for launch system contracts in the U.S., Japan, Russia, and Europe.
Mike volunteered for several years at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Boulder. He is a past member of the SERRA club and the Knights of Columbus. Despite his busy work and family life, Mike was intensely curious and always found time to immerse himself in new interests. In addition to ceramics, woodworking, and collecting rare books and maps, he was an accomplished cook and master photographer. A voracious reader, Mike loved to discuss ideas and could not resist a good debate.
Family was always the most important thing to Mike. His love for his own children was the extended to their spouses and his 19 grandchildren. He was always there to provide advice, direction and unwavering support. Mike will be remembered for his kind heart, generosity, and devotion to his family and friends.
Eve Bat Shalom (Geltman)
Eve, full of passion, creativity, compassion, kindness, gratitude, searching, discovery, spirituality, and peace, died at her home, as was her strong wish, on February 10th, with her family beside her, after a time period of declining health.
Born Eva Ernestine Schaal in 1928 in Breslau, Germany, a region that became part of Poland, her family emigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape Nazi Germany. She lived in Pittsburgh, PA where she attended the University of Pittsburgh majoring in Botany. There she met and married Sydney Geltman in 1953; they then moved to Maryland for Syd’s career and to start their family.
In 1961, the young family moved to their home in Boulder, facing the Flatirons near the University, where Syd was one of the founding physicists of JILA at the University of Colorado and where Eve began her own discovery, with her many interests and creative pursuits.
During 1966-67, the family lived in England, where Eve earned a Licentiate Degree in Music Performance. She worked tirelessly playing the violin, became a violin teacher in Boulder, giving many lessons and student recitals in the family home’s basement, having as many as 50+ students at a time, some of whom went on to become professional musicians. Later she taught piano lessons as well, to both adults and children. She greatly enjoyed playing and listening to classical music, attending concerts, and participating in chamber music and orchestras. She expanded the instruments she played to include piano, viola, flute, recorder and others. Eve became keenly interested in writing and art, expressing herself powerfully in these forms. She was passionate about her children and her family.
Eve and Syd divorced in 1996, at which time she changed her name to Eve Bat Shalom, meaning “Daughter of Peace” in Hebrew. She pushed ahead, always determined to make her life meaningful, always being deeply affected by her life experiences.
In 1997, she moved to the home where she would live until her death, spending every day, often well into the night, fully immersed in creating art, writing, practicing violin and piano, reading, and taking care of her beloved animals. Eve filled her days as a life-long learner, searching for her truths, exploring Judaism, studying all religions, embracing spirituality in many forms, taking music and art lessons, performing in recitals, sharing her art and writing, all with the hopes of processing and expressing her life’s joys and struggles, and impacting others.
Eve greatly enjoyed used and new bookstores, constantly adding to her large collection of books on a wide array of topics. She liked to shop, especially at thrift stores. She enjoyed all things of beauty including the unique and colorful landscape in her yard, interesting cloud formations, the ocean and sea shells. When Eve elected to stop driving about 15 years ago, she traveled around Boulder using a 3 wheel bike. She volunteered, teaching many children to read. She was a committed Democrat and a strong supporter of Barack Obama. She was keenly interested in the concept of positive aging and the eldering years.
As her health issues increased, Eve was adamant about remaining in her own home, which we honored with family and loving caregivers. Eve was one of a kind, she lived her life and her death passionately, in her own way, and on her own terms.
Eve is survived by her children and their spouses, Debbie (Steve), Rachel (Marty), and Seth (Carol); her 6 grandchildren, Nate, David, Leah, Gaby, Jackson, Elijah; her sister Irene (Renie) Sharp, of Palo Alto, CA; extended family, her friends and acquaintances, all of whom she loved and cherished.
Eve lived a very full life; we were so grateful for the expert care of TRU Hospice to assure that her death was natural, comfortable, at home and full of love and care.
Sydney Geltman
Syd Geltman, died peacefully at his home in Boulder on March 17th following a very recent illness surrounded by his three children, Seth, Rachel, and Debbie, who were privileged and honored to provide all of his end of life care giving him dignity and privacy. He was almost 87 years old, and led a very full and vibrant life. Until a week before, he daily enjoyed walking along Boulder Creek to his physics office, playing tennis, swimming, doing crossword puzzles, being with his family, all the things that he loved best. He never used a cane, walker, wheelchair, or any type of assistive devices, which pleased him greatly.
Syd was born in Philadelphia, the only child of Russian immigrants, and grew up in the Northeast. He often recalled fond memories of his childhood in New Haven, Connecticut and in Roosevelt, New Jersey, where he had a large, loving extended family. He served in the US Navy, stationed in Chicago, and was an FDR loyal. A cousin said, “Syd represents the tip-of-the-iceberg-pinnacle for a true hard-work immigrant American success story that started in small rural villages in Russia and will continue to unfold for generations.”
He received several degrees from Yale University, (with George HW Bush as a classmate), and his PhD from Yale University in his early 20’s , he was elected to the board of the Yale Scientific Magazine, followed by a long, distinguished career in physics that always provided him great fulfillment. He was recognized nationally and internationally and had numerous articles published in the physics literature and journals as well as authoring books on the subject. He was honored as an international Humboldt Scholar in the early 1980’s. He had very recently submitted an article that is currently being reviewed for publication. We hope to complete the process and have the article published with the help of our PhD mathematician, Nate, and/or Syd’s physics colleagues.
Throughout Syd’s search for answers in science, he discovered and offered ideas that sometimes went against the grain of the physics establishment. He would at times refer to himself as a “contrarian.” He relished the give and take of ideas. Syd’s persistence and dignity, sometimes in the face of significant opposition, will always be a touchstone to his son, his daughters, and his grandchildren.
His physics career began at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, PA then in Washington DC. Syd moved his young family to Boulder in 1961 where he was one of the original physicists to work with the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now NIST) jointly with the University of Colorado at JILA (Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics) and the University of Colorado Physics Department.
Prior to moving to Boulder, Syd had been very much a Northeasterner, a big city person. He was somewhat apprehensive about moving to Colorado, the “Old West” with “dirt roads” and “Cowboys and Indians. ” Fortunately, he soon discovered that Boulder was the most wonderful place in the world to live, work and have a family. We have always been grateful for the privilege of growing up in Boulder, where the three of us attended Boulder Valley Public Schools from elementary through high school years. We lived in a house that faced the Flatirons close to the CU campus and every single day, we could enjoy that amazing view and be involved in all that beautiful Boulder and the mountains had to offer.
After we became adults, Syd continued to love being in Boulder. He played tennis throughout his life and was the oldest current member of the Rocky Mountain Tennis Club at the time of his death, a fact that made him smile.
For 17 years, he had lived in a 3rd floor apartment with no elevator, only accessible by six flights of stairs carrying groceries, packages, luggage and all. Prior to any significant illness, very thankfully, after much conversation and discussion, last summer he agreed to move to another apartment in the same complex he loved right by CU and his tennis club, which had an elevator and underground covered parking, both of which he insisted he would never use. But we all agreed, including him, that we were grateful to have had those during his short illness.
Syd was an avid reader, he loved working on long and complicated physics problems, and doing extremely challenging crossword puzzles. He loved classical music, art, and watching the news and sports on TV. He loved playing chess with his grandchildren and was the master lox and bagel maker. He was always extremely knowledgeable about history and all current and international events. Stoic and self-sufficient, he was an independent person throughout his life. He never complained, and liked things to be very simple – he defined the words “low maintenance” which included choosing to rent a small one bedroom apartment rather than buy a place, he re-used and repaired everything instead of buying something new, never having a microwave, cordless phone, answering machine, cell phone, home internet, newer car, fancy clothes or furniture, etc, – all of which were inconveniences and puzzling to the rest of us, but suited him just fine and was the way he liked things to be. His son-in-law Marty described him as being firmly planted in the Analog Age.
He personified the word humility; arrogance and pretentiousness were simply not part of his being. He gave us the gift of the love and value of education. In fact, he started saving for his childrens’ college education before we were even born. As a direct result, his three children and six grandchildren greatly value education, are life-long learners, and hard workers.
Syd traveled extensively throughout his life, making physics presentations all over the world. He spent a great deal of time over the years with his long-time companion, Rosemarie, in Vence, France. Syd loved his family dearly, always a source of great joy for him. Syd is survived by his three children, Seth (and his wife, Carol) of Centennial, CO, Rachel (and her husband, Marty) of Scarsdale, NY, and Debbie (and her husband, Steve) of Englewood, CO; and his six grandchildren, Elijah Geltman, Gabriella and Jackson Susz, and Nathan, David, and Leah Aragon, as well as his former wife, Eve, of Boulder, and his long-time companion, Rosemarie Kahan, of Vence, France. Numerous friends, colleagues, extended family, and tennis partners will remember Syd fondly.
We will all miss Syd very much but are so grateful for his life well-lived and all that he taught each of us. He lived a very full life; we were so grateful for the expert care of TRU Hospice to assure that his death was natural, comfortable, at home and full of love and care.
B. Frank Lewis
Frank Lewis was a force of nature, with a zest for living and a love of people. He was active throughout his life and was alway ready to try something new. He loved to meet people — with his direct gaze and firm handshake, he made many acquaintances wherever he went. Frank’s enthusiasm for life, to get as much as possible out of each day, lives on in the hearts of his family and friends.
Richard Bailey
Snapshot of my Dad, Richard Bailey, aka “Papa Duke” (or PD for short),
Playing golf last Sunday I watched my Dad (PD) crash his 3-wheel golf caddy twice in 18 holes. The second time brought a momentary, progeny silence, after the long downhill on the card path from the elevated tee of hole 10 at Applewood Golf course in Golden. A slow downhill brake with the caddy and Dad in control, to almost the end, then the free headlong push and roll down to the fairway. Ok, there were the guard posts and the rope rails between that fairway and the path. Did my old man see them or not? Or does he see the caddy just gracefully, engineered right, just roll on through or over? Guess the outcome!
That caddy is well engineered for sure cause it took that nylon rail like a Wahoo on my buddy Todd’s fishing pole. Sorry, I can’t stop laughing! Ok, at the time I was thinking, had my Daddy’O finally lost it? And my kids, Kelsey and Jake, PD’s grand kids, are slightly stunned with the violence of the golf caddy being “taken down.” Well-used and well-corrected golf clubs are cast about like pick-up sticks, and as should be with a well-engineered caddy, the tools of ball whacking, end up close to the scene.
The hero of this story, after a chuckle, wiggle, fart, cuss, or grunt (take your pick because I can’t remember if it was some or all), walked down calmly, pulled the young and beaten golfing pugilist caddy off the ropes, adroitly re-extended the front wheel, set all upright and began collecting the newly flung clubs. And after patiently watching my old man set about cleaning up his own mess, methodically reestablishing all, with grace, I drove past with our own cart to find my own errant ball.
The second nine was, I think the best 9 holes I’ve ever played. Kelsey, my lovely daughter, started to steadily smack her ball and smile even more than she usually does. Jake, while slightly errant in his own right, got his incredible drive into lower orbit and down into the middle of the fairway. Dang, that boy was inspired as well. PD took the overall round of course, with his combination of consistency, wackiness, and constant attention to detail.
Speaking of Kelsey, as we were sharing the only motorized cart, we watched PD a bit. Earlier on, I think hole 6, Kelsey pointed out to me how PD just pushes his caddy out in front & watches ‘er go. Kelsey said, “Papa Duke is a very interesting person.” Shortly after a push, the cart approached a tree without human guidance, decided to slowly climb the trunk and even slower, tip over. “That’s my Dad,” I said.
Yup, that’s Papa Duke.