Roderick Canfield McCalley
Aug. 2, 1943-Sept. 18, 2024
Palo Alto, United States

Roderick Canfield McCalley, beloved husband, father, and brother, died on September 18th, at Stanford hospital, from injuries suffered in a bicycle accident.

Rod was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1943, while his father was serving in the army with General Patton, in Africa. At the end of WWII, his father continued his military career and so Rod lived in many different places around the world, including Okinawa, Japan and Orleans, France. His family settled in Idaho when his father retired and Rod graduated from Borah High School in Boise, ID. He received his BS degree from Caltech, and his PhD from Harvard, in chemistry, followed by postdoctoral study at Stanford.

Rod was passionate about chess and mountains and science. He met his wife, Peggy, at a faculty meeting at Dartmouth College, where they were both young assistant professors. Rod and Peggy moved to Palo Alto in 1979 with their infant son, Roddy. Their daughter, Carrie, was born in Palo Alto two years later. Rod worked for Lockheed Missiles & Space, later Lockheed Martin, until his retirement in 2003.

A founding member of the New England chapter of the Sierra Club and a member of the committee that planned the first Earth Day, Rod shared his love of mountains with many. As soon as the children were out of diapers, family vacations each summer involved backpacking and peak bagging in the Sierra Nevada. He was active in his son's Boy Scout troop, troop 5, as an outdoor leader and later in the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter’s peak climbing section. Rod and Peggy went on mountaineering adventures all over the world, including several trips to the Alps. They hiked with Sierra club groups in Austria, Nepal, and New Zealand. They never missed a year of hiking to mountain tops in the Sierra Nevada. Rod's retirement project was to climb the highest peak in every 20 minute quadrangle of the Sierra Nevada topographical maps, which he completed on his 80th birthday.

Rod is survived by his wife Peggy of Palo Alto, CA, his children Roderick McCalley of Joshua Tree, CA, and Carmody McCalley of Rochester, NY; his brother Drew McCalley (Marilyn) of Sea Ranch, CA, sister Mary Dudley (David) of Ola, ID; his step-siblings, Valerie Price (Sumner) of Mountain Home, Idaho and Mike Berriochoa (Michele) of Kennewick, WA. There will be no services.