Mauri Gould, science teacher and developer of hands-on exhibits for science museums, passed away on May 23, 2008 at age 93. He is survived by his wife May, a son Harvey and his wife Patti and three grandchildren, Joshua and his wife Rachel, Emily, and Evan, and a son Tom and his companion Barbara Carter. He and his wife celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in June 2007. He was predeceased by two brothers and two sisters.

Mauri Gould was born on February 1, 1915 on the Lower East Side of New York City. He graduated with a B.A. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937 and taught physics and chemistry at Albany High School from 1939 to 1964. From 1964 to 1979 he was Assistant to the Director of the Lawrence Hall of Science. He also was a consultant to many science museums including the Pacific Science Center, the Space Hall of Fame, and Oak Ridge Energy Museum, and taught K-12 teachers how to teach science for many years in various NSF funded workshops.

After his retirement he and his wife lived in Watsonsville, CA where he planted fruit trees, gardened, and raised chickens and then in Sequim, WA where he had a thriving hydroponics-based garden. They then moved to Worcester, MA where he volunteered at Clark University and developed a highly successful course on Discovering Physics with Les Blatt and Harvey Gould. The course is still taught with the notes that he mostly wrote and the experiments he mostly developed. A short video of his thoughts on science education is available on YouTube.

From Worcester they moved to Heritage Village in Southbury, CT, where he spent much time building furniture in the woodworking shop, and then to Seabrook Village, a continuing care community in Tinton Falls, NJ, where, at age 85, he taught himself Windows so that he could help others use their computers.

Tax deductible donations may be made in his memory to Success Charter Network and mailed to Harlem Success Academy, 34 West 118th St., 2nd floor, New York, NY 10026, Attn: Jenny Sedlis. Please designate your donation to Harlem Success Academy 3, where his granddaughter Emily is the principal of a new elementary school that is opening this fall. Science is taught starting in kindergarten.