Forrest Richard Gilmore

Forrest Richard Gilmore was born on August 25, 1922 in Cisco, Texas, to Giralda Schenk Gilmore and Forrest Everett Gilmore and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The eldest of four children, he had a brother, Glen, and twin sisters, Jean and Joan. From a very early age, he had an avid interest in science, especially physics. Forrest obtained his B.S. in 1944 and his Ph.D. in 1951, both in Physics, from the California Institute of Technology. He worked as a theoretical physicist and was an authority on the chemistry of air, reentry physics, and the effects of nuclear bursts. He had over 55 years of experience in analyzing the effects of nuclear weapons explosions, including blast waves, thermal, nuclear and electromagnetic radiation, radio interference, infrared backgrounds and radioactive fallout. He was a senior physicist at The Rand Corporation from 1953-1971 and a founding member of R and D Associates (later Logicon and Northrop Grumman), and was a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Besides his studies in the chemistry of the upper atmosphere (which he continued late into his eighties), Forrest’s great passions included international folk dance and current events.

Forrest started folk dancing soon after WWII, at the Methodist Church in Whittier, where he was a member. Since dancing in a church was frowned upon in those early days, the activity was named “Social Games”. It was there where he met his future wife, Jewel.

As the international folk dancing movement gained great momentum during the 50s (not without obstacles from the McCarthy-ists), Forrest’s dancing activities expanded too, and soon he also became a folk dance teacher. He moved with his wife and kids to the Pacific Palisades, and later, when the kids were grown and he was divorced, he moved to Santa Monica and became a member of all the folk dance clubs on the west side. He danced at least five nights a week. Forrest also played administrative roles in the folk dancing community: for a number of years he was treasurer of the Folk Dance Federation, South, served as president of Westwood Co-op Folk Dancers, and was business manager of the Folk Dance Scene magazine.

Physics and folk dancing were Forrest’s refuge when life dealt him the heaviest blows: the deaths of his eldest daughter, Peggy (Margaret), in 1973, and his son Bob (Robert), in 1997.

Eventually, in his sixties, Forrest became more selective in his choice of dances. Those who danced with him knew him sitting in his usual corner (he had his preferred spot in every club), reading his physics journals or the Economist. As he advanced in years, Forrest learned fewer new dances: the reading time in his preferred spot increased, the number of dances decreased, but he still enjoyed coming, meeting his friends, listening to the music.

He was an avid reader and, besides science, was particularly interested in economic, environmental and social justice issues. A brilliant man, he was also kind and generous; always willing to go the extra mile for his family, friends, and the folk dancing community.

In 2013, increasingly frail and gradually losing his memory, Forrest moved to a memory care facility in the Sacramento area to be close to his daughter, Martha, her husband, Haim, and his grand-daughter Katherine. He died there, after a short illness, on March 21, 2015.

Forrest will be greatly missed by all who knew him.