No path will get you there, we’re off the trail,
You and I, and we chose it! Our trips out of doors
Through the years have been practice
For this ramble together,
Deep in the mountains
Side by side,
Over rocks, through the trees.
–from Off the Trail, Gary Snyder

Gary Lee Findley, 70, died Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe. Dr. Findley was born in Little Rock, AR, on December 29, 1952, to Willis Winn Findley II and Wanda Jean (Kissinger) Findley. Throughout a twelve-year battle with colorectal cancer, he was cared for, with unfailing love and infinite patience, by his wife, Dr. Anna Marie (Tringali) Findley, whom he married on June 16, 1975, in East Lansing, MI, while the two were pursuing graduate studies together at Michigan State University.
Dr. Findley earned his doctorate in Physical Chemistry from Louisiana State University in 1978 under the direction of Dr. Sean P. McGlynn. He began his professional career that same year as Director of the Molecular Spectroscopy Group at LSU and, later, as a visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry. In 1982, he joined the Chemistry Department of New York University as an Associate Professor of Chemistry where he was ultimately appointed as a NYU Scheuer Presidential Fellow (1984) and a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Fellow (1986) in conjunction with his work as a visiting scientist at HASYLAB, an electron storage ring located in Hamburg, Germany. In 1986, he returned to LSU to conceive and develop a special project resulting in a $25,000,000 appropriation to fund the construction of the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), a synchrotron radiation facility. Dr. Findley left LSU in 1989 to pursue work as an independent consultant in university development involving synchrotron radiation research while serving as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and, finally, University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) at the urging of his life-long friend and colleague, Dr. Fred H. Watson. He would go on to join the regular faculty in ULM’s Department of Chemistry, first as an Associate Professor in 1995 and later as a Full Professor, teaching undergraduate courses and graduate level seminars in general chemistry, physical chemistry, statistical mechanics and quantum chemistry.
During his 27-year career with ULM, Dr. Findley was recognized as Outstanding Professor for the College of Pure and Applied Sciences (1999) and earned an Excellence in Research Award from the College of Arts and Sciences (2012), all while serving on multiple committees (both internal and external to ULM) and holding a simultaneous adjunct position at Queens College – CUNY. Education was for him, in the words of Yeats, “not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Whether it is found in the pages of the more than 90 separate publications he saw completed; the many lectures he delivered both at home and abroad; the numerous students he mentored in their own careers; the fellow scholars he labored alongside; or indeed, the two children that he raised – throughout his life, even after his formal retirement from ULM in 2022, he sought to communicate and nurture within all those who met him this fire, a unique and uncompromising approach to all manner of intellectual pursuits and, ultimately, the absolute freedom to be found in the practice of self-awareness. Every day he was able to do so was a good day!
In addition to his wife of 48 years, Gary is survived by his two daughters: Jean-Marie Findley-Williams (wife of Benjamin) and Helen Ann Findley; and two grandchildren, Lauren and Jillian Williams. He was predeceased by his parents, Wanda and Willis Findley; and he is survived by his elder brothers, Willis Winn Findley III and Dr. Larry Lynn Findley (husband of Anita); numerous nieces, nephews and cousins; the last of the great generation, his aunt, Ms. Betty Jeanne Findley; as well as a great many former students and colleagues, including his long-time friends in the dharma, Dr. Rusty Ragsdill and Larry White. The family would particularly like to thank the talented team of doctors who saw him through this last chapter of his life, most especially Drs. Barry Weinberger (oncologist), Frank Sartor (surgeon) and Ronald Hammett (pulmonologist), as well as the dedicated nurses and staff of the St. Francis Oncology Clinic, who saw him at his very worst and very best.
Funeral arrangements are under the care and direction of Kilpatrick Funeral Home of Monroe (online guest register at kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com). In accordance with his wishes, no public services will be held; a private memorial service will be arranged by the immediate family at a later date. In lieu of flowers, they ask that donations be made to the American Cancer Society in his name.

To send flowers to the family or place a tree in memory of Dr. Gary Findley, please visit our Tribute Store.