Fred M. Lurie — November 16, 1930 - July 24, 2025

    Fred Lurie, 94, a Philipsburg resident for almost three decades, died on July 24 in Missoula, where he had lived for seven months. Born in Boston in 1930, Fred grew up in the Boston suburb of Belmont and spent summers in Antrim, N.H. at his family’s house on Gregg Lake. He distinguished himself as a fisherman at an early age by catching the largest bass on record for the lake.
    Fred received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a physics major and served as a member of the ROTC. He joined the Navy in 1952 and served on board ship as an ensign for several years. After leaving the Navy, Fred joined the Physics Department at the University of Illinois, Urbana, as a graduate student of Charles Slichter. His thesis research on “Spin Temperature in Nuclear Double Resonance” was published in Physics Reviews in 1964. The method described in this paper, referred to as the “Lurie-Slichter” method, is still in use, and was cited as recently as this year.
    After receiving his PhD in 1963, Fred spent several years at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1967, he joined the Indiana University Physics Department as an assistant professor and member of the solid-state group. In addition to his research and teaching, he supervised undergraduate laboratories and built the department’s nuclear magnetic resonance laboratory. His 1996 retirement tributes remembered him as the department’s “blackest sheep”—a position he undoubtedly would have been delighted to hold. His colleagues described him as a person who was “honest and disliked hypocrisy wherever he found it.”
    After retiring from Indiana University, Fred moved to Philipsburg for the fishing and spent the happiest years of his life as a member of the community. A card-carrying member of the coffee group – the Pedants of Philipsburg, he was also a member of the Philipsburg Rotary Club and worked on the construction of the warming hut at the skating rink. Fred participated on the Technical Advisory Committee of the Granite Headwaters Watershed Group, and he was instrumental in the founding of the Granite County Museum and worked on the historical displays. Fred worked on the Chamber Flag and Flower project every year, hanging flags and baskets (even when he shouldn’t have been on a ladder!) and helping at the breakfast. Fred was a strong supporter of the Five Valleys Land Trust, and was a lifetime member of Trout Unlimited. He spent many years taking stream flow measurements in the rivers of Western Montana for Trout Unlimited. Fred believed in actively supporting the activities and causes of all of these organizations.
    Fred is survived by six nieces and nephews, ten grandnieces and grandnephews, two great-grandnieces, and one great-grandnephew. Please join us on Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. at the Granite County Museum for a memorial gathering in Fred’s honor.