Richard (Dick) Joseph Turyn of Newton, beloved father, grandfather, and husband, passed away on October 24, 2022. He was born in Poland in 1930 to Zofia (Glicksman) Turyn and Feliks Ephroim Turyn, both physicians. Dick, his mother, and younger brother, Charles, left Poland in 1940, via Nice, France, and arrived in the United States in 1942, where they settled in Astoria, Queens.
Richard attended Stuyvesant High School and then earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD degrees in Mathematics from Harvard University. He contributed to the field of mathematics with his work on Hadamard matrices. In 2006 he was honored by Simon Fraser University for his lifetime work in Sequences and Codes. Dick was an U.S. Army Veteran who served in Korea from 1954-1956.
Dick was a brilliant and generous man who loved animals (especially dogs), walking, language and numbers, chess and go, jazz and classical music, canoeing and sailing, and his family, friends, and neighbors. After he retired, he enjoyed volunteering at the Newton Public Library. He was predeceased by his parents, his son Bill, and his brother Charlie. Dick was the loving husband of Saundra (Haley) Turyn, and the father of Anne Turyn, and father-in-law of Suzanna Gallagher Turyn. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Blaise Yafcak, Lacey Turyn, and Matthew (Gus) Turyn, and many loving cousins. Dick will be missed by his family, friends, and neighbors.
Dick proudly was accepted into the Anatomical Gift Program at Harvard Medical School. A memorial gathering is being held on Wednesday, November 9, 3:30 PM, at the Synagogue in the Newbridge on the Charles, Dedham. Donations in his memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association at alz.org or to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research at mjfox.org