James Albright Obituary

Our Dad, James Norton Albright, passed away on September 2, 2025. Dad was born on June 4, 1943, to Francis and Margaret Albright in Utica, New York. He grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island with two brothers. Shortly after graduating from Colgate University, Dad married his high school sweetheart Virginia Gormley. They moved to Chicago in 1965, where Dad earned his doctorate in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. During this time, they started their family amidst the backdrop of a city alive with social change and the fight for improving human rights.

Upon graduation our family moved to Syracuse, New York, where Dad taught geology, geophysics, and science education at Syracuse University. His career then took the family to New Mexico, where Dad began a 30-year tenure at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His work spanned both basic and applied research in energy and included significant contributions to the Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Project. After his retirement in 2004, the family moved to Durango, Colorado.

Dad's life was dedicated to his family. He and our mother raised nine children, and our family life was filled with travel abroad and locally. Always a walking textbook, Dad continually taught us about rocks on the side of the road, the stars above our heads, and the chemistry and physics behind anything and everything. We remember climbing 14ers and camping in the rain, playing chess and croquet at family gatherings, and trudging through cemeteries looking for ancestors. On family vacations we were packed tightly into the station wagon, sometimes including pets and friends. How did we all fit into one hotel room?! Dad volunteered at our schools, athletic events, and on various community boards. He enjoyed cooking clam cakes and barbequing on the grill, and Dad always had a baby on his lap or on his back.

Our father was an amateur gardener and photographer, an avid reader of history books, and had a fervent passion for family history. After years of research, Dad self-published a book about his great-great-grandfather, a Union soldier in the Civil War. He lived a healthy life and swam competitively during high school and college and later at the neighborhood pool. Over the years, he enjoyed running and playing racquetball. Last year while bearing the physical impacts of cancer, Dad walked over 400 miles in the local shopping mall.

And let's not forget that he was a vodka enthusiast and a staunch Coors beer drinker.

We would like to thank the following for the love and devotion shown to our father over the last six years: Elaine Lam, Cynthia Cathcart, Emily Unterreiner, Christina Binder, Julie Pysklo, and the many nurses and staff members at Mercy Cancer Center, Mercy Hospice Home Care, Mercy Hospice House, and Mercy Regional Medical Center.

Dad is preceded in death by our sister Sarah. He is survived by Virginia, his wife of 59 years, and four sons, four daughters, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

A funeral mass will take place in Durango, Colorado at St. Columba Catholic Church on Saturday, September 20th at 10:00 am. The service can be streamed at www.hoodmortuary.com/obituaries/james-albright.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Hospice of Durango.