Neal Heaps ’42 passed away a couple of weeks at the age of 102. I had missed the Chronicle obituary during the chaos after Hurricane Beryl but am thankful that Grungy took the time to send it to me. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this:
Neal’s father was Claude Heaps, who arrived at Rice in 1914 to teach Physics and remained on staff for forty-three years. And Neal, I believe, was the very last of that generation of children who were raised in the closely knit campus community during the early years of the Institute. This community truly was a large extended family for the young faculty members recruited by Lovett, most of whom left families and institutions back east to pioneer the new university in Houston. Katherine Tsanoff Brown, Marjorie Bray Chapman, Joan Wilson Sherred, Ray Watkin Hoagland Strange, George and Griffy Evans, and many others spent their early lives entwined with Rice and each other, many remaining good friends their entire lives.
Neal was a lovely man, always curious and kind, fun to be with, and deeply grateful for Rice and the childhood spent here. Here he is at a Galveston outing with the Math Department sometime in the 1930s:
And explaining his project for the Engineering Show in 1940:
And finally, during the centennial in 2012 describing some of his time here during the early days:
Neal Heaps, rest in peace.
Oh thank you for letting me know. I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know Neal through the Rice Historical Society.
Beautiful obituary. Neal and my Dad were born about the same time. They don’t make them like that anymore, sadly.
I remember Claude well. Physics 100 also known as Heap’s majic show. It was fun!
Jim Walzel ’59
Neal was one of the nicest, kindest men I’ve known. I miss so many Rice people.
Me too. I’m incredibly grateful for meeting and learning from so many incredible people but it has really hurt to lose them.
I find lots of mentions in the Freeport Facts of Neal with the Freeport Little Theatre, and his marriage, and playing with the community band in the 1940s. He did work at Dow in the very early days, apparently. And his daughter apparently married a boy from Lake Jackson.
I certainly enjoyed getting to speak with him when he was on the board of the Rice Historical Society. Didn’t know until this post that he was a child of very early Rice faculty.
And I really like the open-face wire recorder.
I have my mother’s (born 1923) commercial wire recorder over there -> .
Thank you for the wonderful tribute of my grandfather!
I am Neal’s eldest granddaughter and I was just made aware of this piece today. Thanks so much for remembering my grandfather and great grandfather in such a special way. It would have meant the world to him. Hurricane Beryl unfortunately messed up the Chronicle’s ability to publish his obituary for the originally scheduled run time and we feared no one who knew him could read it. Thank you for including it here. I have fond memories of eating at Cohen House where portraits of my great grandparents hung. He passed just short of his 103rd birthday. It was a blessing to have him involved in all of our lives for as long as we did. He had a special place in his heart for all of his friends, colleagues, and his association with Rice was a great sense of pride and community for him. Thanks again so very much for bringing a positive light to those of us who still grieve his loss.