I'm sad to announce that my father, Robert M. Boynton passed away peacefully in his home yesterday in the presence of his wife and family. He died from bladder cancer, and would have been 82 in October.

Perhaps best known for his book 'Human Color Vision' published in 1979, my father logged more that 30 years of continuous publications spanning four decades from 1952 to 1990. Although his main focus was on the study of color vision using visual psychophysics, he had a variety of additional research interests including physiological optics, light adaptation, and temporal sensitivity. He received many awards for his tireless efforts including OSA's Tillyer Medal (1971), election to the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1971), the Frederick Ives Medal
(1995) the Shaker Heights High School Hall of Fame (1996), the Prentice Medal of the American Academy of Optometry (1997), and election to the National Academy of Sciences (1981).

My dad took his first academic position in 1952 as an assistant professor at the University of Rochester's Department of Psychology soon after completing his PhD with Lorrin Riggs at Brown University. In 1963 at age 39 he founded and headed the Center for Visual Science at U of R, which continues to thrive to this day. He and his family moved to San Diego in 1974 where he worked at the UCSD Department of Psychology until his retirement in 1991. During this time he also served administration roles, including as an Associate Dean at the Office of Graduate Studies and Research. He also served as the chairman of the board of editors for the journal Vision Research from 1982-1986.

He retired from UCSD in 1991 to pursue his longstanding interests in baseball research. His publication record thereby continued uninterrupted through 2004, with articles such as "Three Hours Instead of Five: Playing a 2000 World Series Game at the 1948 Pace" in the journal /Grandstand Baseball Annual/ (2001).

On a personal note, I was honored to be able to pass on to my father the kind and thoughtful words sent to me by so many friends, students and collaborators from the vision community. He was overwhelmed by these sentiments and they greatly helped with his peace of mind in his final days.

He is survived by his wife Sheleah, and children Sherry, Mike, Neil and myself and five grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a local church at a date to be announced.

Geoffrey M. Boynton
Associate Professor
Systems Neurobiology
The Salk Institute
boynton@salk.edu