Chris Calsoyas

Chris Calsoyas, a physicist who worked at the Lab during the 1950s, died June 16 at his home in Angwin, Calif.

Born in San Francisco to Greek immigrant parents, he attended Gallileo High School and graduated from UC Berkeley with a Ph.D. in economics in 1949. He taught at Yale University.

With a proficiency in Russian and shorthand and while a graduate student, he was chosen to assist University of California President Robert Sproul on the International Reparations Commission in Moscow following World War II.

He served in the U.S. Foreign Service at the embassy in Rome where he contributed to the administration of the Marshall Plan. To continue studying mathematics and physics, Calsoyas attended Caius College at Cambridge University in England. From there, he went to the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton where he was mentored by Robert Oppenheimer.

He is survived by his wife, Diana, seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.