Billy Joe Thorne

Billy Joe Thorne

August 19, 1937 – May 17, 2018

On Thursday, May 17th, 2018, Dr. Billy Joe Thorne passed away at his home at the age of 80 after a protracted battle with cancer that he fought with stoic optimism. He passed peacefully—listening to jazz, with family by his side.

Billy was a respected mathematician and computer scientist and retired as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He was also an avid bicyclist, automobile enthusiast, music lover, and volunteer firefighter. First a loving son, then a big brother, a husband, a father, an uncle, a grandfather, and finally a great-grandfather, he is survived by his wife of 58 years, Linda, his sister, Sue Welsh, his children, Jennifer and husband Walter Lehman, Jeff Thorne and his partner Anita Stuckey, John Thorne and wife Micaela Adams, and Matt Thorne and wife Lisa, as well as by grandchildren Angela Corona and husband Raul, Blair Sallee and wife Mica, Dila and Freia Thorne and Random Thorne, 4 great-grandchildren Cameron and Micah Corona, and Viviana and Landon Sallee, and a large extended family who will all miss his optimism, kindness, wit, and infectious good cheer.

Billy Joe Thorne’s story is one of a small-town boy from humble beginnings making his mark on the world. The son of an orphan, Joe Thorne, a conductor for the Santa Fe railroad, and Nellie Fay Thorne, his doting mother, Billy’s upbringing in Wellington, Kansas, instilled in him a desire to know and understand the larger world, and the work ethic and grit to fulfill that dream. Alongside his beloved sister, Sue and his many lifelong friends, Billy’s time in Wellington also instilled a love of fun, fitness, and music, and a do-it-yourself approach to life that served as a foundation for his later achievements. Before graduating from Wellington High School (class of 1955), Billy worked any job he could get to finance various projects from fixing up his first cars, to building his first hi-fi sound systems. When nostalgic for those times, Billy often told proud tales of enduring the hot Kansas sun to hang power lines, and deliver heavy loads of ice from the ice-plant to upstairs apartments. He also played sports and was always fit and athletic – and proud of it. Despite a learning disability that made school a struggle, Billy would go on to be the first member of his family to attend college.

Now a young man, red-bearded Billy (a.k.a. “Red Dog”) started his foray into the world beyond Wellington in Enid, Oklahoma, where he attended Phillips University, intending to go into the ministry. But life had other plans; it was at Phillips that Billy found the two greatest loves in his life, advanced mathematics, and his wife, Linda. In 1959, Billy became a husband and graduated with a B.A. in mathematics. He and Linda started their family in Manhattan, Kansas where Billy attended graduate school at Kansas State University. With Linda’s support -- earning extra cash typing term papers, providing him a refuge and support to learn -- in 1961, he graduated with an M.S. in mathematics and the family, now including a daughter, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, so that Billy could join the Field Test Mathematical Services Division at Sandia National Laboratories.

Early in his career at Sandia, Billy received training in the emerging field of computer programming and wrote systems software for the lab’s main scientific computer, developed software for analysis of optical data from the bomb drop test range, and developed software for the first outer space nuclear blast detection satellites. By 1967, Billy’s work in the Thermodynamic Properties of Solids Division at Sandia had led to his co-authoring TOODY, a seminal computer program used for calculating problems of motion in two dimensions using Lagrangian finite difference equations, published after he returned to school full-time at the University of New Mexico to pursue his Ph.D. in mathematics. His dissertation, A—P Congruences on Baer Semigroups, was completed in 1968 while he was on faculty at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Now the father of 4 children, Billy returned to Albuquerque and Sandia where his dissertation work served as a foundation for a wide range of projects aimed at understanding shock wave propagation and developing computing techniques for making these calculations with the super-computers of the day; these techniques are still in use today. In 1974, Billy left Sandia for the world of private scientific consulting where his firms provided scientific analysis of shock wave propagation for weapons research, and computer simulations of nuclear waste in geological strata. By 1981, now a grandpa, Billy had returned to Sandia where he worked as a Supervisor of the Computational Physics and Mechanics Division, as a Senior Member of the Geotechnology Research Division, and as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the Engineering and Mechanics Department and the Solid Mechanics Engineering Department. Projects in this later stage of his career included development of three-dimensional computer modeling techniques for use in weapons and energy research, development of a patented tetrahedral seismic geophone array, and development and validation of massively parallel computer modeling techniques that allow for finite element calculations on tens of millions of elements leading to the first radiation hardness certification of a nuclear weapons component without the need for an underground nuclear test, in compliance with the comprehensive test ban treaty.

While his work as a scientist was central to who he was, Billy was not all business. During these years he and Linda took in his aging parents, raised 4 children, and saw the world. After Linda bought him his first 10-speed bike he rode his bike to work daily for 4 decades. On his own or with the New Mexico Touring Society and the La Fayette Riders he ended up riding tens of thousands of miles collecting tales to share with friends and family of being lost on back roads around New Mexico and Europe. After a fellow bicyclist was killed in a collision with a car, Billy advocated for the first bike path system and helmet use promotion measures in Albuquerque. His kids remember him taking the family on backpacking trips to see lunar eclipses, for help making pinewood derby cars, electric train sets, homemade kites, and guitar amps. They will never forget hours spent helping him with some project in the shop, the tickling, the best bear hugs, and the joy he had in sharing the latest science or automobile article he had read, listening to his favorite record, or digging into to a bowl of ice cream.

Later in life Billy became a volunteer fire fighter and part-time community member in Brazos, New Mexico, where he and Linda had their second home in the mountains. Brazos neighbors looked forward to seeing what clever Halloween costumes Billy and Linda would put together for their annual party.

But, perhaps Billy’s proudest accomplishment was his role as “Papa” – as he was known to his grandkids and great-grandkids. After retirement nothing made Billy prouder than picking up his great-grandkids from school in his blue 1940 Mercury convertible – being the cool grandpa with the cool car, a perfect fit.

In his last years, Billy and Linda showed the value of teaming up for mutual support in times of poor health and other challenges, continuing to live by their philosophy of do-it yourself independence.  He was no longer the strong man everyone knew from when he was younger, but he maintained the same strong will throughout his battle with cancer. And as a scientist to the end, he willingly participated in clinical trials knowing that what could be learned from his struggle could help others, using his body to support the incremental increase in scientific knowledge much as the work of his mind had done in his prime.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate charitable donations: https://www.tennysoncenter.org/