Internationally-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking will be in San Diego this Saturday to attend a private tree planting ceremony at the Chinese Bilingual Preschool in memory of his close friend and benefactor, Dennis Avery.
Hawking was unable to attend the Avery’s funeral last August due to hospitalization in England at the time. Hawking promised Avery’s widow, Sally Wong-Avery, principal of the school, that he would come back the following year to plant a tree in Avery’s honor.
According to Wong-Avery, Hawking and Avery were close friends who attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge together in the 1960s. Heir to the Avery Dennison label fortune, Avery founded the Center for Theoretical Cosmology and supported much of Hawking’s work. The two often traveled together to attend international conferences and award ceremonies.
This will be Hawking’s first visit to San Diego. The event will take place at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 13th. It will not be open to the general public.
