Died 5-28-2016 after years of living with leukemia. Son of Richard Marshall Eakin and Mary Mulford Eakin, he was a native of Berkeley and a resident of Richmond since 1972. He earned BA and PhD degrees in physics from U.C. Berkeley and for 42 years wrote the Analysis of Molecular Spectra Newsletter for U.C. Berkeley, retiring in 2004. He was a scientific Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.
He also taught high school and took student groups on hiking and backpacking trips. An avid mountaineer, he hiked most of the trails in Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite National Parks and climbed many of their mountains. He described some of his experiences in his 2008 booklet Yosemite Elysium, Favorite One-day Walks in Yosemite. He was a life member of the natural history associations of Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and Yosemite. For his epitaph he chose these words of John Muir: "I am hopelessly and forever a mountaineer. The mountains are calling me and I must go."
He is survived by sister Dottie Eakin of Tucson, Arizona; cousins Steve Mulford of Nevada City, Phil Mulford of Auburn, Ken Mulford of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Walt Mulford of Eugene, Oregon; step-sisters Janet Harris of Sebastopol and Jeannie Lamb of Helena, Montana.
Suggestions for memorial contributions are the Yosemite Conservancy, the Mono Lake Committee, or camp scholarships for Richmond youth and families at: YES, Nature to Neighborhoods, 3029 Macdonald Ave., Richmond, CA 94804, phone (510) 232-3032, or online at www. yesfamilies, org.
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Marian and I knew the Eakins through the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. I was born in 1941 and Marian in 1942. Richard Eakin taught at U.C. Berkeley.
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