Memorial for Norman H. Fuchs (1938-2025)

Professor Norman Howard Fuchs, a respected physicist and long-time faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, passed away on February 6, 2025, in Reno, Nevada, after living many years with Parkinson’s disease.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, he distinguished himself early with a Westinghouse Science Talent Search Scholarship and went on to study physics at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) and then at MIT, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1964. He joined the Purdue physics faculty, where he focused on elementary particle theory and was admired as a teacher, scholar, and mentor.

Fuchs retired in 2000 to Phoenix and spent many summers abroad in France with his wife, Rachel, who predeceased him in 2016.

Norman and Rachel were adventurous travelers, exploring dozens of countries from Europe to Oceania and Southeast Asia. They loved good food and wine, classical music, and art. He taught himself guitar, harmonica, recorder, crumhorn, and many languages, and was also an avid tennis player until slowed by Parkinson’s. He volunteered for nearly two decades in local Democratic organizations supporting women’s rights, human rights, and education.