Douglas Cline died peacefully on June 20, 2025, surrounded by his family. Doug was born Aug. 28, 1934, and raised in York, England.

He was the first person in his family to attend university and received a B.Sc.1st Class Honours in physics in 1957 and a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1963, both from the University of Manchester, England.

Following this, he accepted a research associate position at the University of Rochester in New York. Doug decided to settle in Rochester to help build and use the most powerful DC accelerator for nuclear physics at the time.

He rose through the ranks to professor of physics as well as being director of the Nuclear Structure Research Laboratory (NRSL). He received the Marian Smoluchowski Medal from the Polish Physical Society in 2013.

Doug was an incredibly dedicated professor. He taught undergraduate and graduate physics courses from 1965-2015. And received the Excellence in Teaching from the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 2007 and 2009.

He is published in more than 250 peer reviewed articles, and his book “Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics” is still used and downloaded by university classes around the world.

Outside of work, Douglas shared his love of canoeing, running, camping, cycling, skiing, and soaring with his family. Doug was also an accomplished classical pianist.

Doug is survived by his wife Lorraine Van Meter-Cline, his two children Julia Cline (Stephen Kelly) and Geoffrey Cline (Delaram Davari). His three grandchildren are Stanley Kelly, Amelia Kelly and Golnar Cline.

All are welcome to celebrate Doug’s life, 2-4 p.m. Sept. 13, 2025 at Vista Del Monte, main lounge, 3775 Modoc Road, Santa Barbara.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra https://rpo.org/.