Memorials › Dr Alex Louis Marusak

Dr Alex Louis Marusak

4 Oct 1941 – 6 Feb 2007

Birth4 Oct 1941
Death6 Feb 2007
CemeterySaint Joseph Cemetery
Ennis , Ellis County , Texas , USA
Added byJohn Bird on 26 Aug 2015
FaGhttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44560806

Bio

Alex Louis Marusak, 65, died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007, of pancreatic cancer. Alex was born Oct. 4, 1941, the ninth of thirteen children of Joseph William and Agnes Zmolik Marusak. He was the lat of the thirteen children to be delivered at home by midwife; and he was also the last of the children to be taught the Czech language as his native tongue. He learned English at St. John Nepomucene Catholic School in Ennis, graduating from St. John High School in 1959. With the help of scholarships, the U.S. Government Student Loan Program, summer jobs in carpentry courtesy of his brothers and brothers-in-law, and part-time work in college, Alex became highly educated, earning a PhD in Nuclear Physics through the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1969. After beginning his professional career at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; and being ever a glutton for punishment in education, he returned to school in 1972, earning a JD degree from Duke University Law School in Durham, NC in 1975. He then returned to Los Alamos National Laboratory. While at Los Alamos, Alex had the good fortune to meet Nancy Jean Lanham, a geologist and one of only a handful of female scientific staff members then at the National Laboratory. They dated, married on June 15, 1980, and remained married at the time of Alex's death. Although Alex never served in the military, he did spend his entire professional life at the nuclear weapons research facility at Los Alamos. He believed with all his heart and soul in the moral righteousness of working in the nuclear weapons program, with nuclear weapons being an indispensable part of the United States' security. He was always proud of the professionalism shown by the entire staff at Los Alamos in carrying out this often controversial activity. The personally most satisfying moment of Alex's professional career happened one evening in late November 1976, following weeks of effort and of failure but also steady progress. Alex took the combined work product of a highly talented group of scientists including himself; sat down at the console of Serial #1, the first and only Cray-1 supercomputer then in existence; dead-started that magnificent $6M machine; and successfully executed a test of the first high–level-language scientific program ever to run to completion on the new supercomputer. The language was, of course, FORTRAN. Although the several Cray-1-like series of supercomputers from Cray Research, Incorporated have been superceded by later generations of supercomputers, the computational abilities of those machines remain legendary to any serious student of the history of computing. Nancy and Alex retired together from Los Alamos National Laboratory on their eighteenth wedding anniversary, June 15, 1998. They then left the cool climate of Las Alamos (elevation: 7200 feet) and moved to Alex's hometown of Ennis, so that Alex could answer the siren call of cutting down mesquite trees on their farm in the hot Texas sun. Alex loved his wife, his many brothers and sisters and their families, his astoundingly many other relatives around Ennis, his "42" dominoes-playing friends from the St. John retiree group the Golden Crusaders, and a select handful of friends in Ennis and around the United States and the World. And finally, Alex loved their farm. When working conditions were right, Alex would spend up to six days a week at the farm, clearing mesquite, thinning the woodlands, and otherwise maintaining the place. He did this for over eight years, at peace with the world, with himself, and with the Almighty God his Maker. Rosary for Alex will be recited at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Keever Chapel. Mass of the Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday in St. John Catholic Church with Rev. Edison Vela and Deacon Dean Darnall as celebrants. Interment will follow in St. Josephs Cemetery under the direction of J.E. Keever Mortuary.

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