'HE NEVER JUST DID NOTHING'.

Byline: Martin S. Gonzalez Staff Writer

Once referred to as the the ``bongo-playing raconteur and genius of quantum electrodynamics,'' Richard P. Feynman was a unique man whose intellectual curiosity and infectious enthusiasm for life and all its mysteries provided a profound insight into the creative and imaginative nature of the scientific mind.

Much like Albert Einstein - the world's most famous physicist - Feynman gained celebrity status within the scientific community that stretched out into the larger population. His work in the field of quantum electrodynamics changed the way scientists think about physics, and his ever-curious mind was involved in many of the country's scientific landmarks. He worked as an important member of the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the atomic bomb, and later single-handedly solved the puzzle of the Challenger Shuttle tragedy. He was a heck of a practical joker to boot who could crack safes and play the drums.

Feynman was born in Far Rockaway, N.Y, on May 11, 1918. He credited his father, a uniform salesman, with teaching him to think and steering him toward science, but early on, it was clear he did not look at the world in the same way as the rest of us.

He earned a bachelor's degree at MIT and, while still a grad student at Princeton, was recruited into the Manhattan Project, where, while only in his 20s, he became a major contributor in the creation of the atomic bomb. He also took to cracking safes, a practice he mastered and made mischief with at Los Alamos.

Perhaps Feynman's passion for living can be traced to a loss he experienced early in his life. His teenage sweetheart and first wife, Arline, died from tuberculosis while Feynman was in Los Alamos. He married her knowing she was fatally ill. Later in life, he married twice more. He had two children, Carl and Michelle, with his third wife, Gweneth.

After Los Alamos and a brief stint at Cornell University, where he lectured and continued his research, Feynman joined the staff at Cal Tech in 1950, where his contributions to the field of physics continued, and his legend as a devilish raconteur grew. A brash and animated lecturer, he quickly became a student favorite for his entertaining and sometimes unorthodox teaching style. In one of his graduate classes, there was no syllabus. Feynman simply showed up and answered students' questions.

``Richard presented us with a new way to look at physics and to work with its complex computations and formulas in an easier and more logical way,'' said Albert R. Hibbs, a former student of Feynman's at Cal Tech who became a close friend.

An example of this vision can be found in the ``Feynman Diagrams,'' which Feynman developed to speed up calculations in the field of quantum mechanics.

He was rewarded for this and other work in quantum electrodynamics with a Nobel Prize in 1965, but in typical fashion, he played down its importance.

Feynman's greatest exposure to the world came with the crash of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. Chosen to participate in a committee that was investigating the cause of the crash, Feynman ran off and did his own investigating, slicing through obfuscation and detailing the confusion and misjudgment that infected the space agency.

``He was very reluctant to go to Washington when he was asked,'' Hibbs remembered. ``He called me up and asked me for my advice. I asked him if he thought it was important. He said he thought it was. So I asked him if he thought he could make a difference. He said that he probably could, and after a long silence, he said, 'To hell with you, Hibbs,' and hung up the phone.

Although his experiences working on the Manhattan Project may have solidified his disregard for government and politics, his daughter, Michelle Feynman, explained that his stance was formed at a much earlier age.

``I think it stemmed from my grandfather being a uniform salesman,'' she said. ``He instilled in my father this belief that the general who puts on the general's uniform is the same man as a soldier or civilian. So I think he always had, not a suspicion, but a lack of respect for uniforms, and it transferred over into politics. You know, feeling that people might just be supporting other people's agendas, instead of truly supporting what they believe in.''

Despite his reservations, Feynman lunged into the investigation in typical and dramatic fashion. With a simple physics experiment, he revealed the cause of the disaster. He dropped a ring of rubber, the same material as the O-rings of the failed solid-rocket booster into a glass of cold water and pulled it out, misshapen, proving that cold temperatures the night before the launch had contributed to the disaster. In a tepid attempt by the government to silence his work, Feynman's findings were published as an appendix to the final report published by the commission on the Shuttle tragedy.

Feynman would die soon after the NASA investigation, after an eight-year battle with cancer. He passed away on Feb. 15, 1988. In 1999, he was named the seventh-greatest physicist of all time in a poll conducted by the British journal, Physics World.

Beyond the accolades and recognition, those close to Feynman remembered him for much more than his scientific prowess.

``What I remember most is his willingness to laugh at himself. He taught me how important it is to always keep your sense of humor,'' said Michelle Feynman.

``His happiness for life,'' said Hibbs, ``He brought a lot of joy into the lives of those around him.''

Feynman's interests and hobbies outside of the realm of physics were extensive, and he pursued them with the same dogged zeal he would use to pursue any scientific quandary.

``He may have been thinking about science 24 hours a day, but he had enough energy left over for other things,'' Michelle remembered.

Later, he developed a passion for drumming - his most famous hobby - and also became a serious student of drawing.

``I didn't realize how absorbing a hobby it was until a publisher contacted me about his work,'' Michelle continued. ``I went down to the basement and saw that there were a huge stack of pads filled up with his work.''

``I don't know how he got the time to do all the things he did. Phenomenal,'' Hibbs remembered. ``I think he never just did nothing.''

There were also the languages he taught himself: Japanese, Portuguese, and Mayan; and the obsession he developed late in life for the small unknown Asian country of Tannu Tuva, a country most of the world didn't even know existed. Although he never made it to Tannu Tuva, he set up a Friends of Tuva foundation and helped put the country on the world map.

Until his very last breath, Feynman's boundless energy and unending curiosity did not waiver. In many ways, the key to his success was that his mind worked liked that of a child's: uninhibited, always curious, and endlessly willing to look at things in a different way.

``He loved kids,'' remembered Michelle, who is expecting her first child. ``At every party they went to they flocked to him. It's really too bad he was never a grandfather.''

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Photo: Phyicist Richard Feynman, says his daughter, Michelle, was not a workaholic in the traditional sense: ``He may have been thinking about science 24 hours a day, but he had enough energy left over for other things.''