Don DeVincenzi

Keith’s note: according to this notice: “Don DeVincenzi passed away peacefully on February 14, 2025 surrounded by his family.” Where do I start? Don was a fixture at NASA Ames for decades in the exobiology / astrobiology community. And I mean decades – back to the very foundations of NASA’s search for life in the universe. I can recall in 1977 that I cold-called him – as a 22 year old community college student – to ask for some advice on pursuing a career in space science. He talked to me for 15-20 minutes. I was really energized by that – this important guy took that time to talk with me. When I arrived at NASA a decade later I would find myself in a meeting with him or reading something he wrote or studying research he had done. He was ubiquitous. Don rubbed elbows with the Carl Sagan crowd when they were figuring out the basics. Indeed, he was responsible for enabling what many of these early researchers accomplished – and what NASA’s current Astrobiology program was built upon. Ad Astra Don.