Lester Clint Welch

Lester Clint Welch passed away peacefully at his residence in Bell Trace on July 17th, 2023. He was born March 27th, 1941, to Nelson Eldridge Welch and Lydia Pawnee (Kenyon) Welch in Tucumcari, New Mexico. While growing up, he lived in various places along the Santa Fe Railroad as his father was a signal maintainer and the family moved often. Lester earned his BS in Physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and his PhD in Physics at the University of Southern California. He remained a lifelong fan of the USC football team as well as a Life member of the Alumni Association. It was in California that he met his first wife, Dixie and his son Von was born. Lester left California to pursue physics research opportunities in England, where his son, Kent, was born, and Germany. His area of specialization was developing data acquisition software for large-scale physics experiments. In 1977 he secured a position at the Indiana University Cyclotron and moved to Bloomington, Indiana. He spent six years completing the system to collect and analyze the data produced by the varied experiments at the Cyclotron. While in Bloomington, he and his family became close friends with the family of another physicist at the Cyclotron, Peter and Janeth Schwandt, and their two children, Michael and Melanie. After growing close, the adults mutually agreed to switch partners. For a while, all four adults and four children resided together and bonded as an expanded family. Lester was very involved with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington and served as President of the Congregation for one year. Lester completed his work at the Cyclotron in 1983 and subsequently moved to work at Argonne National Laboratory in Hinsdale, Illinois. Janeth chose to follow him there, and they were married in 1985. Their next move was to the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. In 2005, he retired to Aiken, South Carolina and returned to Bloomington in 2018 to be closer to family. Lester’s many hobbies included driving his 1997 Mazda Miata R, clock repair, genealogy, chess, Wordle, crossword puzzles, identifying and cultivating wildflowers, and following the stock market. While living in Aiken, Lester was a leader in organizing a celebration of the role the city played in detecting the neutrinos at the Savannah River Site in 1956, leading to the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics by Frederick Reines. Shortly after his death, his brother, NelsonEldridge Welch, Jr, also passed. Surviving are Lester’s wife, Janeth Murray Welch, Nelson’s wife, Nina Dane Welch and younger brother Wayne Kent Welch, and immediate family: Dixie Welch and Peter Schwandt, Michael Schwandt and Eleonore Maudry, Von Welch and Ruth Aydt, Melanie Schwandt, and Kent Welch, Evelina Dineva, Kalina Welch and Zora Welch. A celebration of life is being planned for June 15, 2024. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Compassion and Choices (https://www.compassionandchoices.org); the ALCU (https://action.aclu.org); or a charity of your choice. Allen Funeral Home and Crematory have been entrusted with arrangements. Online condolences, photos and memories may be shared with family and friends at www.allencares.com The family of Lester Welch would like to invite all those who knew Lester, or have connections to him, to help us celebrate his life on June 15, 2024, at 3:00pm in the meeting room of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, located on Fee Lane at the by-pass. Flowers from your garden would be all right to bring, but commercial arrangements are discouraged. Donations in his honor may be made to Compassion and Choices (https://www.compassionandchoices.org); the ALCU (https://action.aclu.org); or a charity of your choice.

Tributes

Lester Clint Welch

March 27, 1941 - July 17, 2023