Norman Hay Mines - Obituary

orman Hay Mines (81), father, grandfather, mathematician, missile scientist, teacher, polymath, jokester, tennis player, gardener, liberal, and cherished husband of Elaine Bunten Mines died peacefully in his beloved home on the banks of Broad Creek, Annapolis, MD on Tuesday, June 21, 2016. Born in Murray, Utah in the middle of the Great Depression to William Vernal Mines and Carolyn Hay Mines, he had an idyllic small-town childhood in what is now called "Historic Sandy City", much to Norman’s amusement. Vivid memories remained: from basketball in his backyard with the neighborhood boys, his mother's raising chickens to get them through the depression, his father's taking him to the Salt Lake Bees games after work, taking his driving test in the family’s Model A, to frequent trips up Little Cottonwood Canyon to the mountains, just east of his home. He remembered with joy his family and the antics of his childhood friends. An avid learner all his life, Norman studied math and physics at the University of Utah just in time to participate in the great science and engineering quests that followed Sputnik. He worked all over the country with Sperry Utah, Institute for Defense Analysis, and MITRE Corp. He topped off his first 30-year career by earning a second Master’s Degree at George Mason University, specifically to prepare to teach math and statistics in retirement. He liked to teach his students why math and statistics matter and to help math-phobic students through required statistics and pre-calculus courses! It was his practical experience in rocket testing at White Sands, NM that brought him East to Institute for Defense Analysis in the early 60s for what he thought was a year or so before returning West. A year later his first son Fred was born and three years later Jeff. So a year or two became a permanent residence in the East for the rest of his life. He loved the greenery, seasons and flowering trees & shrubs in the Washington area. One of his favorite times was when he and Elaine made trips all over Chesapeake Bay country from the mouth of the Susquehanna to Tidewater Virginia looking for their retirement home on the water. Those who will remember him with love include his immediate family: wife & partner of 43 years, Elaine; son Frederick William Mines, wife Rossanna, grandson Samuel Norman and granddaughter Karen Rebecca of Arlington, VA; son Jeffrey Raymond Mines of Hayward, CA; sister Doris Mines Goodrich, husband Kent, niece Lisa, and nephew Glenn of Boulder and Denver, CO; and many friends and colleagues from work, tennis and other athletics, and his community. A celebration in Norman's memory will be held at the family home at 1 pm on Saturday, July 2, 2016. To remember Norman, teach a child to play tennis or to love math, science, astronomy or cosmology.