Anecdotes by a retired physicist describe his education and subsequent career in industry, academia and two National Laboratories and a term as an official in local Government; the science was fun. He tells why he recommends small Liberal Arts Colleges for undergraduate study rather than large universities, and why technically educated people are needed in local government. Many of the anecdotes are humerous.
The author was born in 1917, educated in public schools in Denver, West Texas, Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City. He attended Westminster College, the University of Utah, and in 1939 received a B.A. degree in physics from Kalamazoo College and, in 1943. a Ph. D. from the University of Illinois. He did pioneer research on circular electron accelerators and on nuclear reactors and their application in nuclear physics; in later years he examined the feasibility of gamma-ray lasers. He was an elected Town Councilman 1965-69. He retired in 1987, having worked in industrial, academic and National Laboratories.
My first morning at GE was spent largely in Dr. Coolidge's office. At noon Dr. Coolidge took me to lunch in the Executives' dining room in Building 6 with my immediate supervisor Dr. Ernest Charlton. We were joined there by Drs. David Harker and Roman Smolokovsky, x-ray crystallographers. The former was hoping to examine "the crystal structure of nuclei" with x-rays from the 100-MeV betatron once it was fully operational. I pointed out that it would first be necessary to devise amonochromator or narrow band filter, since the x-ray spectrum would be continuous, and needed to be measured. Then I outlined the research program I had developed by discussions with Morrison, Goldhaber and Welton before leaving Illinois.