The Teilhard Project mourns the passing of our dear friend and Honorary Board Member, Jesuit Father George Coyne. George lost a battle with cancer in Syracuse, New York, where at the age of 87 he was still teaching at Le Moyne College. He had previously served as Director of the Vatican Observatory for 24 years.
George’s fellow Jesuit, David McCallum, posted on Facebook, “A humble man of great intellect, with the pastoral heart of a priest and a great sense of humor, the kind characteristic of really wise people. He used to joke that when people would introduce him they would sometimes describe him as a ‘cosmetologist’ rather than a cosmologist, or as an astrologer rather than an astronomer. But this wonderful Jesuit, who has moon craters and asteroids named after him, would never embarrass his hosts by pointing out their error. He loved his mid-Atlantic roots in Baltimore even as he travelled the world and explored the stars. And he loved life, nature, being outdoors. He delighted in people and learning about our Le Moyne students’ lives.”
We were honored to interview him for our Teilhard documentary on March 26, 2019.
You will find tributes here to him in the New York Times, and from Le Moyne College.
