Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14th of this year. He is considered one of the most brilliant men who have ever lived. He gained most of his nobility by writing A Brief History of Time. The book sold over ten million copies and made Professor Hawking into a household named. At the time of his death he was the director of research for the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, located at Cambridge. He has also been the Professor for over forty doctoral student!
Hawking’s memorial was held at Westminster Abbey on June 15th. The event was attended by over 1,000 people, and that was after 27,000 had applied to be part of the service. Among the attendees there were celebrities, former students, and his fellow peers in the field. Benedict Cumberbatch read from the Abbey’s Great Lectern and read to the crowd the first lesson of the Book of Wisdom. Cumberbatch played Hawking in 2004 as part of a BBC drama.
Hawking’s ashes were placed in between Sir Isaac Newton’s and Charle Darwin’s. There was some question as to whether or not this was what the Professor would have wanted. During his career he was not a very religious man, rather he was a man of science who needed facts. His friend Lord Ress who was also part of the memorial expressed Hawking’s desir of learning the mind of god. he concluded by saying that is also fitting that he is in one of the nation’s shrines in between two of the greatest minds who have ever lived.
Stephen Hawking will be missed, and hopefully his students will finish the work he has started.
