Paul Arnold Feldman

Predeceased by his parents, Jennie (Iserovitz) and Abraham, and partner Lise Jobin, Paul is survived by his children Hilary (Douglas) and Dan (Stacey), granddaughters Hannah and Rosalie, former wife Melinda (John), and sisters Eleanor (Steve) and Naomi. He also leaves half of Minor Planet (3658) Feldman.

After degrees at MIT and Stanford, Paul held postdoctoral positions in the UK (Cambridge) and Canada (Queen’s, York) before joining the National Research Council, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (HIA) in Ottawa. His interests ranged from theoretical astrophysics to radio astronomy and molecular spectroscopy; he enjoyed his observing trips, primarily at Algonquin Radio Observatory (Ontario), Kitt Peak National Observatory (Arizona), Green Bank—National Radio Astronomy Observatory (West Virginia), Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (Penticton), the Very Large Array (New Mexico), and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (Hawaii). In 1996, he moved to Victoria when HIA relocated to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) in Saanich.

Paul loved food, from fine cuisine to pastrami on rye, and music from Bach to Leadbelly. He became adept at “homebrew” beermaking and developed a green thumb for everything from orchids to native plants. His passion for local fungi grew after commissioning a DAO survey that identified 1,450+ native species, including several new to science.

A clever, sociable, and chatty person with a keen sense of humour, Paul will be remembered as a lively raconteur. It was a great shame that his last years were challenged by logopenic progressive aphasia and gradual language loss. We are grateful for the respectful and considerate care he received from the staff of the Lodge at Broadmead over the past two years.