In Remembrance: George Max Muller ’47MS Died on December 2 2016

George Max Muller, loving husband, godparent, and friend, passed away peacefully December 2, 2016, having just said goodnight to his beloved wife Holde.

George was born in Vienna, Austria, on January 19, 1922, to Marianne and Paul Muller. In 1938, the family immigrated to England where George attended Falmouth Grammar School to earn his Cambridge School Certificate.

In 1939, George immigrated to the United States where he lived in Philadelphia with his uncle before receiving a scholarship to Bowdoin College. In 1941 he enlisted in the US Army, and he received his US citizenship in July 1942. As a paratrooper in the Regimental Headquarters Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, he jumped on D-Day, June 6, 1944, near the town of Carentan, France. On June 23, 1944, George was wounded while on reconnaissance patrol and was later awarded the Purple Heart.

After the war, George returned to Bowdoin College where he graduated in 1946 magna cum laude with an AB in physics. He went on to Yale University where he received an MS in mathematics and physics in 1947. George then moved to Richland, Washington, to work as a nuclear reactor physicist at General Electric’s Hanford Works. In 1951, he left GE to attend graduate school at Harvard, earning an AM in mathematics in 1953. He returned to Richland and worked for GE until 1955, later moving to Menlo Park, California, to join Stanford Research Institute as an applied mathematician, working on a variety of theoretical and experimental programs until 1975.

On February 22, 1969, this committed bachelor first met the love of his life, Holde Lautenschläger. They were married on April 19, 1970. Together, they enjoyed the outdoors, loved the arts, classical music, and spending time with their friends. They traveled extensively, even as recently as in the summer of 2016—once more to Vienna.

George worked as a staff scientist at Haimson Research Corporation for two years on the application of electron beam devices. In 1978 he joined Dalmo Victor’s Advanced Systems Department as a senior research scientist with duties in system and software design, primarily on airline collision avoidance. After his retirement in 1994, George started his own software consulting business, consulted for computer companies, and promoted his long, extensive research in digital signal processing, in particular spline function techniques.

He excelled at the research and development of novel numerical techniques, and authored or coauthored six papers published in refereed scientific journals, as well as numerous conference articles and project reports. He was a longstanding member of several professional societies and served as a referee for the Journal of Applied Physics. In 1946, he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society, and in 1956, to the American Men of Science.

George was a true Renaissance man who loved to laugh, and even more so, he loved to make others laugh, usually with a bawdy limerick or lyric. He was a lifelong learner, had a scholarly interest in the English language, and enjoyed poetry. He was a keen student of philosophy, history, the arts, and music, particularly Mozart, always humming a tune or two. Also, he was an advocate for peace, justice, and human rights.

George is survived by Holde, his wife of 47 years, and many dear friends.  He will be missed so very deeply!

—Submitted by the family.