SPENCER
Laurence Gene Battin, 72, passed away peacefully at McCormick’s Creek Healthcare Center in Spencer, Indiana, in the early morning of June 12, 2025. Gene was born April 28, 1953 to Maurice and Joyce Battin, in Columbus, Indiana. He graduated in 1971 from Columbus High School. He played French horn in the CHS Symphonic Band and was named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist. Growing up, he was active in the First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Indiana, where he sang in the choir, played organ, and was ordained a ruling elder. He attended Indiana University, where he was an honors student.
Gene spent his professional career as a particle accelerator engineer-physicist, starting at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility in Bloomington and later moving to Michigan State University’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.
Gene’s mother inspired in him a love of learning, which remained with him his whole life. A conversation with Gene was never dull or routine. His interests were far ranging, and he was always eager to discuss them. Among his passions were gazing at the stars through his telescope, composing music, singing with abandon wherever and whenever the mood struck him, writing poetry, watching birds, and playing competitive chess. He was a talented photographer, a ham radio operator, and a storm spotter.
Surviving Gene are his sons Josh A. Battin of Bloomington and Michael Laban (Joyce) Battin of Springville, Indiana; stepson Daniel Isaac Duke, of Spencer; grandchildren Owen C. Battin, Emily C. Battin, and Aaron J. Battin, all of Bloomington; and sisters Pamela Battin Sheets of Fishers, Indiana, and Rebecca Ann (Doug) Bell, of Columbus. He was preceded in death by his parents and an older brother, Maurice Lee Battin, Jr.
There will be no funeral service. His family will gather to celebrate his life when his cremains are buried alongside his parents and his beloved brother at Garland Brook Cemetery in Columbus. Cremation was entrusted to Samaritan Funeral Home. Online condolences may be made to www.samaritanfunerals.com.
“…and time will, as it only can,
pace on and measure out the span
of that eternity, until
Eternity has had its fill.”
—from epitaph, by L. Gene Battin
