Carl August Ekdahl Jr.

Carl August Ekdahl, Jr. Obituary

Carl August Ekdahl, Jr. born May 2, 1936, peacefully passed away Thursday, June 25th. His sons Nicholas and Kristofer held his hands as he made the decision to Fly West and be with his beloved wife and lifelong companion Rhonda, who predeceased him in October 2022.

Carl made what he considered one of the best decisions of his life by enlisting in the Air Force after High School. The USAF gave him the opportunity to travel and most importantly, stationed him in Tennessee where he met Rhonda Nell Wilder. They dated until Carl was discharged honorably and he then promptly married Rhonda.

They relocated back to Carl’s childhood home of Santa Ana, California so that he could proceed with his higher education.

He attended Santa Ana College, earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at San Diego State University, and his Doctorate at the University of California, San Diego. He excelled at Mathematics and Physics, leading him to work in those fields. He taught mathematics at Mesa College and at the same time began his physics career at Maxwell Labs, both in San Diego.

During this time his sons, Nicholas (Nick) Carl Ekdahl and Kristofer John Ekdahl, were born.

He took up sailplane piloting after having competed for years in automobile road rallying. His love of flying was infectious, as Rhonda, Nick, and Kris all soloed and flew sailplanes. He competed at Regional and National events which took him and Rhonda on many crazy and storied adventures across the country. The Soaring Society of America awarded Carl an Exceptional Achievement Award for his contributions to the sport and having developed software to aid other pilots in cross country flights.

Carl’s long career led him to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where he made lifelong friends and colleagues. He ultimately made the move to Los Alamos National Labs in Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1975 where he worked for over 50 years on several projects, most recently Chief Scientist at both DARHT at LANL and Scorpius in Nevada. He was honored by LANL in February 2026 by being made a Fellow of the Lab. He was also recognized by the IEEE professional society as a Fellow. He loved his work and enjoyed the company of his like-minded and driven colleagues at the Lab. He was a prolific writer of technical papers and was an editor of several professional journals. His works have been cited over 4 thousand times according to Google Scholar. He was also very proud of his work with Charles Keeling at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in the early 1970s concerning CO2 in the atmosphere.

He traveled extensively for work and pleasure, and Rhonda accompanied him on many of the trips on which they made some incredible memories. Russia, France, Scotland and Switzerland were some of their favorite destinations. They also discovered a love for river cruising, having traveled down the Danube and Rhine and one trip down the Rhone in France.

He is survived by his aforementioned sons, Nick and Kris, Nick's wife Loriane Grubb Ekdahl, Carl's wife’s sisters in Tennessee, and numerous valued friends and colleagues.

A viewing will be held from 2-4pm on Thursday, July 2nd, 2026 at:

Riverside Funeral Home

1607 Saint Michaels Dr N

Santa Fe, NM 87505

United States

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the American Cancer Society, Disabled American Veterans, and/or St. Elizabeth Shelter in Santa Fe, NM.