These are words that were shared at our memorial service for Leif, and/or that were sent to us after his passing.

If you have memories of Leif that you would like to share on here, please email me at [email protected]
(if you'd rather not type, you can call me and I can transcribe what you have to say)

     - Mark

You get two emails from me, to give you a sense of this guy.

I work in an ICU. I was on night-shift, and I sent him an email which he replied to during the day, and I read the next night at work.

I wrote…

I'm sitting down in MRI monitoring my patient.  The tech tells me it's a superconducting magnet cooled with helium and that's what the whooshing sound is.  To make the images they use RF coils arrayed in each of 3 dimensions to disrupt the magnetic field?  Cool.

He wrote…

It could be difficult, getting along with Dad. He gave us as much as anyone could hope for, a beautiful yard to run around in and explore and plant things, a love of nature, a respect for the inquisitive, and more and more. But it could be difficult to get along with him.

transcribed from Jon's words at the memorial service

I am Leif's older brother, and that morning it was about 34 degrees.

The Pittsburgh Ahrens family's arrival each summer meant a rallying of the cousins.  There were at least six of us: two older girls who talked endlessly of feminine matters, we two younger ones who played endlessly with animals, and THE BOYS who were always dreaming up adventures.  We managed to get along en masse as well, timesharing two parlor spaces for practicing piano and varied wind instruments. Then there were the tireless games of cowboys and Indians with cap pistols, hide and seek (with each of us vying for finding the most creative, secretive spot), and nature walks supervised by Uncle Chuck with all children slathered in fels naphtha soap to avoid the copious poison ivy at the farm.

Leif was such a light. I was proud of how very smart he was. He has also showed us how courageous he was! He was a marvelous student to be sure!

He loved nature and shared that love with "Uncle Chuck"...and my memories are rich with our trips going to the Sandy Beach...former name of East Harbor State Park. Chuck and my father had grown up there at Sandy Beach.

Evelyn:
I met Susan in 1975 when I moved into an apartment in an old schoolhouse that was divided into several apartments in Ithaca. She was on her porch with a hand-crank ice cream machine, making peach ice cream. And then of course I got to know her on-again off-again boyfriend, Leif, who'd show up in a white Porsche. And then my future-husband moved into a third apartment in the same place, and so we all became friends.

John is the Head of the Controls Software Group in the Collider-Accelerator Department at Brookhaven National Lab,

I came to Brookhaven Lab in 1989 — it seemed to me like Leif had always been there. I do computer software, and the way things work there, we often have teams of people who come together, and so I might work on a project where Leif would be the physicist involved.

I think the first time I was assigned a job to write an application program for an accelerator system, the system was the AGS Gamma-jump, and Leif was leading the project. I was lucky, because I think Leif exemplified what's best about working at Brookhaven Lab. He was obviously very smart. He was enthusiastic, and dedicated to getting the job done. He also clearly respected the different skills that each different person brought to the project team, and I always learned something new when I worked on a project with Leif.

Haixin is a physicist who worked closely with Leif in the Collider Accelerator Department at BNL.

As I am leaving to Vancouver tomorrow, I recall that my first PAC conference after joining BNL was to Vancouver in 1997. Leif also attended that one.  At Vancouver, I learned that Leif loved to ski. From the conference site, we could see far away the mountains capped with snows, even in the middle of May. He told me he went to ski during break and said it was a good experience to ski in May. We stayed in the same hotel, Park Hotel, which was about 15 minutes walk to the conference hotel. I didn’t know that until one day I noticed he was using the pen from that hotel. I told him I was also staying in that hotel and complained that it was too far from the conference site. He said he liked the hotel. The distance was fine and he enjoyed the walk every day. From that time, I knew he loved to exercise and was very energetic.

Mike is the Accelerator Physics Division Head in the Collider-Accelerator Department at BNL.

I first met Leif in 1991 after starting work in the AGS Department at BNL. I think he was a bit suspicious of a theoretically-inclined astrophysicist, but I was from Cornell, so that counted for something. Leif was wonderful to work with. He always had a smile and a twinkle in his eye. Mind you, the twinkle had a bit of mad scientist to it and did not appear to be entirely benign. Nonetheless it was always fun.

Peggy is a Software Engineer in the Collider-Accelerator Department at BNL.

I cannot begin to tell you how much Leif meant to me. I have been thinking about when I started here at BNL, I had just made a 180 in my career path and was starting completely over so I was on some very shaky ground. I'm not sure how, but he just knew that and got me involved very quickly in some projects that were great confidence builders. He was a very comforting presence for me. I still miss him from when he retired!

Travis is one of the Machine Specialists in the Collider-Accelerator Department at BNL.

I don't like many people. I respect fewer, and the number whose opinions mean anything to me is very small. Leif was always in all three of those camps. There was nothing worse than going to work and doing something dumb when he was there. He would never say anything, he wouldn't even give me a look, but just knowing that I may have let him down — it was no good.

I think everybody that came up can talk about how brilliant he was, how he loved to be a teacher — he was just amazing. My favorite story of Leif is nothing like that. It's probably almost twenty years ago now. I came into work on a Sunday morning, 7AM for a day shift. Leif was already there working.

compiled from a series of emails Barry sent to Susan

Leif and I had so many great times together in the army – I think the two of us helped each other make it tolerable. We both hated authority types. I have so many memories over those 2 years. All week long we would plan the weekends outings and escape to Red River Gorge in eastern Kentucky or on long weekend escape to the Smokies on crazy long drives.