Frank Midgley died March 24, 2014, at home surrounded by family from non-small-cell lung cancer after 3 1/2 years of, in his own words, “kicking cancer back to the Stone Age.” He was 42 years old.
Frank grew up in Potomac, Md. At Princeton, he majored in computer-science engineering and was a loyal member and officer of Campus Club. He worked as a software developer in California and Wisconsin after graduation.
For the past six years, Frank worked beside his partner, Julie Simpson ’95, as a software engineer and scientific-computing specialist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Virginia. Frank was a brilliant, creative artist whose work ranged from developing software for neuroscientists like Julie to inventing MacOsaix, a program to create captivating digital-mosaic artwork. He also was a masterful Lego engineer, a passion he shared with his two sons.
Frank is remembered as a kind, gentle, talented human being with the utmost moral integrity. He had a love of word games and a sublime sense of humor that he maintained through the darkest hours of his long journey with cancer.
Frank found peace in nature, and he and his family dedicated a redwood tree to his memory in Humboldt National Forest before his death (Frank’s tree is No. 79).
He is survived by his parents, Frank Midgley ’61 and Jan Windmiller Midgley; his sister, Elizabeth MacKenzie; his partner, Julie Simpson ’95; and their sons, Jake (7) and Dylan (5).