On this date in 1936, physicist, educator and writer Chester Theodore “Chet” Raymo Jr. was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., to Margaret (née Dietzen) and Chester Raymo, a mechanical engineer. “I am a Catholic by accident of birth,” he would write years later in explaining his lack of traditional religiosity. His family’s church differed from most of the ones their neighbors attended in an area full of evangelical Protestants.
Still, later on, he grew up with one eye on the afterlife, living “in fear I might die with a mortal sin on my soul.” He struggled with trying to negotiate an uneasy truce between science and religion. “Most of my books are exploring the interplay between the traditional, spiritual way of looking at the world and the scientific.” (Notre Dame Magazine, Winter 2017-18)
A childhood fascination with astronomy led him to a career devoted to science and education. After graduating from a high school where he was taught by Dominican nuns, he earned a B.A. in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s in physics from UCLA and a Ph.D. in physics from Notre Dame.
He met his future wife Maureen while they were Notre Dame undergrads. They were married for 67 years and had four children: Dan, Margaret, Tom and another daughter, also named Maureen, who became a leading climate scientist. Raymo credited his wife for helping him give up his religious devotion: “She’s always been a good skeptic.” (Ibid., Notre Dame)
He started teaching in 1964 at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., a school founded in 1948 by the Congregation of Holy Cross, which had founded Notre Dame a century before. The Catholic mission allowed him to be steeped in a familiar religious tradition, even if it was one that he’d ultimately rejected. “Some of my closest friends have been Catholic priests. I couldn’t accept their theology, but I always respected where they were coming from, so we got along fine.” He stayed at Stonehill for nearly 50 years. (Ibid., Notre Dame)
From the 1980s through early 2000s, he wrote 14 books on science and nature, including several novels. He adapted one, “The Dork of Cork” (1993), into a screenplay for the 1995 movie “Frankie Starlight” co-starring Anne Parillaud, Matt Dillon and Gabriel Byrne. His weekly column “Science Musings” appeared in the Boston Globe from 1983 to 2003. He also wrote for Scientific American. When his Globe column ceased publication, he continued offering his reflections on science and humanity on his personal website.
“Raymo was also a passionate advocate for environmental stewardship, leaving behind a legacy of joy and reverence for the natural world,” his obituary said when he died at age 89 at home. It suggested directing donations to the Natural Resources Trust of Easton to honor his lifelong commitment to education and public understanding of science. (D. 2026)
