He displayed some 10,000 cat-themed artifacts at the American Museum of the House Cat in North Carolina, which welcomed several thousand people a year.
In decades of correspondence, the author gave her friend, JoBeth McDaniel, a mix of opinions, advice on writing and insight into the impact of the Civil Rights movement.
A theoretical physicist-turned-sociologist, he upended his field by focusing on social networks to explain how society works. His writing was compared to James Joyce’s.