"Starflight" Author Murdered
Robert Zubrin

Dr. Eugene Mallove has been reported murdered during an attack by
robbers on his Norwich Connecticut family home May 14. Mallove, a
founding member of the Mars Society and former chief science writer
for the MIT news office, was the author of "The Starflight
Handbook," "The Quickening Universe, " and "Fire and
Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor."

I knew Gene Mallove. He was a remarkable person. A passionate
believer in progress and purpose for both the human race and the
universe itself, he was a true soldier of Hope. His "Starflight
Handbook" (co-authored with Greg Matloff) inspired a generation
of engineers to exert their minds against the ultimate challenge in
astronautics. His "Quickening Universe" laid out a grand
vision for the purpose of intelligence and life in the cosmos. And
if, in his final years, his focus on the possibilities cold fusion
exposed him to some derision, this does not speak badly for his
heart. As he put it to me when I expressed some skepticism on this
score, "It doesn't matter if it's a long shot. If there is anything
to this at all, then someone has to fight for it."

Here is what he said in the closing lines of "The Quickening
Universe."

"Our quest unfinished. Soon we shall hand down hard-won yet
meager enlightenment to our clinging children, as those who went
before bequeathed their knowledge to us. What has been our place
here? Simply to seek truth and know beauty. This we take with us to
the end: one atom in the quickening sea of a barren world can ignite
the wildfire of life that consumes a globe, or one being on a
germinating planet can alter the course of a civilization. One
curious and romantic civilization may aspire to a galaxy.
Civilizations of goodwill together may change a universe. There is
meaning in the mystery of this story that can have no end."

Gene Mallove is survived by his wide Joanne, his children Kimberlyn
and Ethan, and many friends.

Farewell, noble soul. You will not be forgotten.