Crawford John MacCallum ’51

Described in his obituary as a physicist, astronomer, performer, translator, and all-around adventurer, Mac died at his home in the village of Tijeras, a suburb of Albuquerque, N.M., April 27, 2023, after deciding to forgo food and drink.

He came to Princeton from Lawrenceville in 1947. He majored in physics and was a member of Cannon Club and the Republican Club. New Mexico became his home after he studied physics and astronomy at Cornell. He took a job with Sandia National Laboratories in 1954, where he worked on national security research projects for 30 years.

Mac had an active interest in the arts, including theater, poetry, music, and Spanish literature. He was a founding member and prime mover in several English-Spanish theatrical groups and was known for his love of the Spanish language for which he was often a translator and a mentor to others. A lover of adventure, he seemed to forever be traveling the world tracking gamma rays with high-altitude test balloons in Australia and diving off cliffs into pools in the Grand Canyon.

Mac is survived by five sons.