Dr. George Michael Safonov

It's with a heavy heart that I must tell you that my Grandpapa passed away on June 1st, 2014.  He was 93 1/2 years old.   I went to visit him shortly before he left us.  I snuggled with him and we visited just like we did in the old days.   He remembered me, too.  "Oh, my sweet Mary-Margaret!  I just love her so much!",  he would say.

He liked to sleep a lot and mostly he kept his eyes closed.  He was sort of dozey as I attempted to get comfy on his hospital bed with him.  One side of his bed let me look out his window and the other side was closer to where my mom was sitting.  Rather than walk all the way around him to get to the other side I took a short cut, unfortunately missing my mark and landing smack on his "gentleman" parts.   "OHHH…..AHHH….!", he said as he opened his eyes and quickly sat up for the first time in a long time (I'm told).   "WHAT….?   Ohhh….Mary-Margaret!", and he laughed and petted me some  more.

Now that we had him awake and alert, we suggested he might like some ice cream…vanilla, perhaps?  That got his eyes twinkling again, so Mom asked the nurse for two little cups of vanilla ice cream and she spoon fed him according to his request.    It wasn't until after he passed that my Uncle Mike told her that he could have fed himself, but we didn't mind.   It was nice to feel that we made him happy at that moment.

I would have enjoyed some vanilla ice cream, too, but nobody offered any and despite my efforts to communicate my wishes I was very loudly ignored.  The silence was practically deafening.  Hmmmph.

Here's a picture of my Grandpapa when he was working at RAND Corporation back in 1955.   He was pretty important back then.  He was consulted by Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, Arnold Kramish and other nuclear bigwigs of the day.

My Grandpapa was a genius when it came to Atomic Energy and it's applications in both war and peace.    He also wrote a remarkable theory on the beginnings of the Universe called "Photon-NonPhoton Universe".   You can read it by clicking the link on the right side of this page.  It's been read and downloaded by people from all over the world.  It's my Grandpapa's gift to mankind.

I'm so very proud to be his "beloved Grand Dogger" and to have been loved by him.   I will miss him so very much.

Mary-Margaret