# RIP Murray Gell-Mann **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2019, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490 "2019-05-25T03:52:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2019, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/1 "2019-05-25T03:52:03Z")
> **[Murray Gell-Mann, Who Peered at Particles and Saw the Universe, Dies at 89...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/obituaries/murray-gell-mann-died-.html)** > > A Nobel winner, he found hidden patterns in the subatomic matter that forms the universe, evoking James Joyce in calling one kind of particle “quarks.” > [@Murray Gell-Mann](#): > > If I have seen further than others, it is because I am surrounded by dwarfs. Postulated and named quarks. Won a Nobel Prize for it. Certainly one of the greats. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/2 "2019-05-25T03:55:15Z")
Smart man. When they hired him he gave the condition that he would always be paid more than the football coach. Sad news. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2019, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/3 "2019-05-25T08:39:02Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Smart man. When they hired him he gave the condition that he would always be paid more than the football coach. Sad news. Considering he worked at CalTech, that’s probably no major amount of money. However, Wikipedia says he also had a professorship at USC. _That_ would be a significant chunk, if he made it a condition there. A toast: Three quarks for Muster [del]Mark[/del] Murray. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/4 "2019-05-25T13:36:39Z")
Actually had breakfast once with him. I was at an Amazing Meeting (a one-time annual skeptical event featuring James Randi as host) and a friend who was helping organize things grabbed me and two others, gave the other guy some money and said 'he wants breakfast before we start." Next thing I know we’re at the restaurant with Professor Gell-Mann. Can’t remember anything profound about it, outside of him getting up from the table to go get the waitress, while we sat there like three little kids… One of the great thinkers. Humanity will miss him. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/5 "2019-05-26T00:20:13Z")
I have no way of knowing if it’s true, but perhaps due to this stipulation he was paid a million dollars a year as a professor decades ago. He also was said to have been fluent in thirteen languages. My brief knowledge of his theories was when I read the Feynman lectures 25 years ago. The two were close, but apparently MGM thought Feynman a bit of a blowhard? Anyway, I was sad to hear about this. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/6 "2019-05-26T00:26:52Z")
I was actually idly wondering just the other day if he was still alive. He was the last great physicist of his generation. Absolutely crazy, of course, but his crazy ideas _worked_. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/7 "2019-05-28T20:31:39Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > A toast: Three quarks for Muster [del]Mark[/del] Murray. Well said! > [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Actually had breakfast once with him. I was at an Amazing Meeting (a one-time annual skeptical event featuring James Randi as host) and a friend who was helping organize things grabbed me and two others, gave the other guy some money and said 'he wants breakfast before we start." Next thing I know we’re at the restaurant with Professor Gell-Mann. Can’t remember anything profound about it, outside of him getting up from the table to go get the waitress, while we sat there like three little kids… > > One of the great thinkers. Humanity will miss him. I met him at the 2006 Amazing Meeting, and he autographed a copy of one of his books for me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-murray-gell-mann/834490/8 "2019-05-29T06:40:08Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I met him at the 2006 Amazing Meeting, and he autographed a copy of one of his books for me. Huh; I would have liked to have met him. I went to a couple of TAMs, but a few years later–'09 and '10 IIRC. I don’t recall any mention of him being around. At least I got to see Penn and Teller in the Monkey Room.