Lester Marvin Sachs, who retired from the Social Security Administration, died March 28 from dementia at Seasons Hospice at Northwest Hospital Center.

He was 82.

Dr. Sachs, the son of a carpet salesman and a homemaker, was born and raised in Chicago.

He served in the Army as a cook and later a photographer, and attended the Illinois Institute of Technology on the GI Bill, where he earned his bachelor's, master's and doctorate in solid state physics in the early 1950s.

He worked for the U.S. Department of Labor and later the SSA in research and theoretical physics for more than 30 years, until retiring in 2007.

A classical music fan, Dr. Sachs also played the piano.

He enjoyed fishing and was an avid gardener.

He planted dwarf fruit trees and maintained a large vegetable garden at his Randallstown home. He was also a rose fancier.

Dr. Sachs enjoyed square- and round-dancing, said his wife of 53 years, the former Blanche Cohen.

He was a member of B'Nai Israel Congregation.

Services were held Thursday.

Also surviving are a daughter, Deborah Eve Sachs Barsky of Pikesville; two brothers, David Sachs of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and Kenneth Sachs of Minnetonka, Minn.; a sister, Theodora Aronson of Skokie, Ill.; and several nieces and nephews. A son, Jared E. Sachs, died in 1974.