This Saturday, I was part of a Celebration of Life gathering held at the UCC Peace Church in Santa Cruz, California. There, we remembered the life and legacy of physicist and cosmologist Joel Primack.
He and his wife, Nancy Abrams, co-authored two very important books, The View From the Center of the Universe and The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World. It was an honor to have worked at times with them over the years.
Many beautiful stories were shared at the gathering, including stories of how Joel and his wife met and courted, and how Joel had a photographic memory, and how, at six years old, he discovered that one never needs to be bored if one learns “to notice.” This insight came to him when he was in a small grocery store in Butte, Montana, his hometown, and bored being there, but realized how interesting were the buttons on his coat.
Former students spoke—he oversaw 50 PhD scientific dissertations, and near the end of his life, was still writing recommendations for his students’ advancements. I recall him lighting up with pride when he would talk about his students and what great contributions they were making to science today.
His major contribution to the topic of cold dark matter was explained by a woman professor who worked closely with him for decades and co-authored a major breakthrough article published in 1984 along with two other scientists. His support of women scientists and students was recalled, and his major role and courage in co-founding the Union of Concerned Scientists who resisted the Vietnam War.* (He was aware that, even though he had tenure, he could have been fired for his vocal opposition to the war.) An advisor to presidents, he was modest and approachable at the same time.
Here and in tomorrow’s DM, I share my talk from this special occasion.
Today, we remember a great man and great soul with a great calling, namely to study the universe in all its splendor and majesty, awe, and wonder. Joel Primack was a mentor to many in this room who are carrying on this glorious work of learning about the world, the universe, the cosmos we live in that has birthed us all. How many of you would call Joel your “teacher” or your “mentor”?
And those of us who read his books are his students too.
My job and vocation is as a spiritual theologian, and I am indebted to Joel and to Nancy, who together were a “power couple” in the best sense of that term. Their book on View from the Center of the Universe is a classic.
When I think of the universe and urge others to do so, I am reminded of three teachings from Thomas Aquinas, a 13th-century saint and theologian who dared in his day to bring in the teachings of Aristotle, the greatest scientist of his era. He had three strikes against him because 1) he was a “pagan” and not a Biblical person; and 2) he came to Europe by way of Islam; and 3) he was a scientist, and fundamentalists in Aquinas’s day, as in ours, believe they have no need of science.
Aquinas said, “The most excellent thing in the universe is not the human. The most excellent thing in the universe is the universe itself, and all beings are here to serve the universe.” Joel had the most excellent vocation: To study and teach us of the truths and wonders of the most excellent thing in the universe. And the most sacred thing in the universe.
To be continued.
*Kenneth Chang, “Joel Primack, Physicist Who Helped Explain the Cosmos, Dies at 80” New York Times, January 17, 2026
Banner Image: Poster for Joel Primack memorial.
Queries for Contemplation
What follows from Aquinas’s teaching that “the most excellent thing in the universe is not the human but the universe itself?” And that we are all here to serve the universe? How do you see humanity and yourself serving the universe?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 384f
“Father Sky,” in The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors To Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 10-17, 29f
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
4 thoughts on “Joel Primack: The Passing of a Special Man and Scientist”
Mysteriously, the mystics teach us that the universe/cosmos is not only around us, but also within us as a portal of deeper awareness/consciousness of our deeper identity as part of the
Spirit/Flow of LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS in the Sacred Creative Evolving Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
“His major contribution to the topic of cold dark matter was explained by a woman professor who worked closely with him for decades and co-authored a major breakthrough article published in 1984 along with two other scientists.”
What was HER NAME?
The three others who contributed to the paper were Dr. Sandra Faber of the University of Santa Cruz (who spoke at the memorial service), Dr. George Blumenthal of the University of Santa Cruz, and Dr. Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge, England. Dr. Sandra said that it was Joel Primack who did “90%” of the work and called the group together but who did not take lots of credit, instead listing the contributors by alphabetical order.
I have been a visual artist all my life. My work the last 30 years has primarily been portraying the natural landscape as I see it. The gift of the skills I have been given and my perception of the beauty in this world around me is my contribution to the Cosmos.