Melvin Schwartz, a Nobel Prize winner and a member of the Stanford physics department for 17 years, passed away Aug. 28 at the age of 73. Schwartz, who also founded a Silicon Valley company, Digital Pathways, died in a Twin Falls, Idaho nursing home after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and hepatitis C.

Schwartz shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics with Leon Lederman and Jack Steinberger for their work on the muon neutrino.

“Mel deserves to be known as the father of accelerator neutrino physics,” said Prof. Stanley Wojcicki, chair of the Stanford physics department.

Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 1966, Schwartz was a member of the Columbia University faculty. Schwartz left Stanford in 1983 to devote more time to his company, which focused on the secure management of data communications.

Schwartz became Columbia’s I.I. Rabi Professor of Physics in 1994. In 1995, Columbia honored Schwartz with its highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Medal.

Schwartz moved to Ketchum, Idaho in 1997. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Schwartz, of Ketchum, Idaho; brother Bernard Schwartz, of Walnut Creek, CA; son, David Schwartz of New York City; daughters Diane Bodell of Bolingbrook, Ill.; Betty Marcon of San Francisco, Calif..; and six grandchildren.

Services will be held Oct. 12 at Stanford’s Memorial Church, at 4 p.m. with a reception to follow at Varian Physics Building. Additional memorial services are pending in New York and San Francisco. Contributions in Schwartz’s memory may be made to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, 1359 Broadway, Suite 1509, New York, NY 10018.