Longtime Professor of Physics Carl Hayn, S.J. died at the age of 98 in Los Gatos on Oct. 21, 2014.
He was born July 13, 1916, in Los Angeles and graduated from Loyola High School. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Los Gatos in September 1933. Following studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, he taught physics and mathematics at Loyola High School, 1940-43 and engineering physics at the Army training program at Loyola University (Los Angeles), 1943-44. Theological studies were made at Alma College, Los Gatos, and Carl was ordained a priest in 1947. In 1955 he received his Ph.D. in Physics from St. Louis University where he worked in experimental solid state physics. Subsequently, he engaged in postdoctoral work at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies and pursued further studies in nuclear physics at Washington State University. Carl served as president of the Northern California/Nevada section of the American Association of Physics Teachers and published articles in The American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher.
Carl’s lifetime (and much beloved) ministry was in the physics classroom at Santa Clara University beginning in 1955. He taught full time for more than 50 years, retiring in 2006 when partial hearing loss made classroom teaching more difficult. Devotedly and enthusiastically, however, he continued his daily trips to the physics lab to tutor students and to spend time with his dear colleagues. Carl’s regular pastoral ministry included daily 6:00 am Mass celebrated in the Mission Church and priestly service to the Carmelite Sisters of Santa Clara, a community of which he was very fond. After his retirement he generously made himself available to the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery for funeral and burial services. In 2012 he moved to Sacred Heart Jesuit Center to undertake the ministry of prayer.
Carl’s twin sister, Sister Mary Carolyn Hayn, CSJ, predeceased him.
We shall miss Fr. Hayn as teacher, colleague, minister, and brother to the Jesuit community. Together we recall the great gift of his long and full life.