Well-wishers filled the streets of Cambridge on Saturday for the funeral of British physicist Stephen Hawking, hailed by another leading scientist as an imprisoned mind roaming the cosmos. Hawking crippled since a young man with a degenerative disease.
Confined to a wheelchair for most of his life after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease when he was 21, Hawkings towering intellect and sheer persistence struck a chord with ordinary people. His work ranged from the origins of the universe itself, through time travel and probing black holes in space. He achieved international renown after the publication of A Brief History of Time in 1988. His coffin was topped with white Universe lilies and white Polar Star roses and carried by pallbearers from the University of Cambridge, where he worked. The 76-year-old scientist was mourned by his children Robert, Lucy, and Timothy, joined by guests including playwright Alan Bennett, businessman Elon Musk and model Lily Cole.
Eddie Redmayne, the actor who played Professor Hawking in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything was one of the readers in the ceremony and Felicity Jones, who played his wife, Jane Hawking in the film also attended the service. Why did he become such a cult figure? The concept of an imprisoned mind roaming the cosmos plainly grabbed peoples imagination, he said. Hawkings ashes will be interred at Westminster Abbey in June, among some of the greatest scientists in history, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin.