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IN MEMORIAM
CLAUDE WENDELL HORTON, SR.
Claude Wendell Horton, Sr., age
86, of Austin, died, following a long illness, on March 2, 2002.
Claude Horton was one of the principal contributors to the development
of the Departments of Physics and Geology, and the Applied Research
Laboratories of The University of Texas at Austin.
He was born in Cherryvale, Kansas, on September 23, 1915, to Marie Terwilliger
Horton and Roy Wesley Horton. While he was still a young boy, his family
moved to Houston, Texas, where he completed his public school education
and entered Rice Institute (now Rice University). He received a BA degree
(honors) with a major in physics in 1935 and an MA degree in 1936, both
from Rice. The following year he worked as an assistant seismologist for
Shell Oil Company, a popular area of work for physicists at that time.
This work marked the beginning of Claude's interest in seismology and geology.
During the 1937-38 school year he was a graduate student at Princeton University,
but he evidently decided that there were better things to do than graduate
work. On November 23, 1938, he married Louise Charlotte Walthall of Houston.
He returned to Shell Oil, this time as party chief, where he led a group
in exploration geology. He held this position until January 1943, when
he resigned to undertake efforts in support of the war.
In May 1943, following a brief stint as an instructor in the Naval Training
School at the University of Houston, he joined the staff of the Harvard
Underwater Sound Laboratory as a research associate in theoretical physics.
He remained at the Laboratory until it closed at the end of the war in
the summer of 1945. During this period he carried out analytical studies
on several aspects of underwater acoustics and was heavily involved in
the design of scanning sonars.
Dr. C. P. Boner, then associate director of the Harvard Underwater Sound
Laboratory, recognized Claude's capabilities and, when Boner returned to
The University of Texas to start the Defense Research Laboratories (now
the Applied Research Laboratories), he asked Claude to join him. The U.S.
Navy assigned the newly-established laboratory the task of developing a
radar homing system for the new series of surface-to-air guided missiles.
Claude immediately demonstrated his strengths in theoretical analysis by
making significant contributions to the theory of electromagnetic horn
antennas and dielectric waveguides and antennas. He wrote his doctoral
dissertation on the subject of the theory of radiation from horns and was
awarded a PhD in physics by The University of Texas in 1948.
Claude's contributions were an essential part of the early success
of the Defense Research Laboratory. When the Laboratory moved
into the field of
underwater acoustics, Claude immediately shifted fields and made many contributions
to areas of underwater acoustics. In the broad category of echo structure,
he and his students, through extensive experimentation, began narrowing
the gap with analytical formulations. The significance of the work was
in establishing sensor and technology limitations in order to separate
out and understand physical processes. The results from simple targets
guided the understanding of acoustic scattering from complex targets. This
understanding of echo formation, coupled with the recognition of when and
how statistical treatment is needed, culminated in the successful implementation
for the navy of a device to automatically classify echoes. Claude’s
interest in sensors, particularly the directionality properties of sensors,
resulted in several new transducers, especially transducers-reflector combinations,
and, most importantly, in a detailed understanding of nearfield properties
of directional transducers. This knowledge was exploited in a method of
predicting farfield performance of large transducers from nearfield measurements.
Closely related to echo structure studies is another broad category of
reflection and scattering. The problems of special interest here are surface,
bottom, and volume effects in contrast to discrete target effects (echo
formation), although there is considerable overlap in the problems. These
studies resulted in the ability to determine when a stochastic treatment
is required and in useful statistical treatments of data.
Each of these areas demonstrates a significant contribution,
but it is important to keep them in perspective. It was Claude's
ability to provide
the important interrelation of problems from several fields that was perhaps
his greatest contribution. Electromagnetic wave theory and geophysics have
both been mentioned. Perhaps not as obvious is the tie between acoustics
and signal processing. In the same category is the development of methods
of treating data. Routine processing of large quantities of data to extract
statistical significance could not have been done a few years back. In
two invited papers he gave to the ASA (November 1970 and October 1973),
Claude interpreted the significance of this transition to the use of higher
order statistics. Claude did not just observe this transition, he led it.
Consistent with the breadth of his analytical capabilities was the ability
to relate to experiment design and interpretation. Claude saved many experiments
(and experimenters) by understanding equations. In 1980, for his work on
underwater acoustics, Claude was awarded the very prestigious “The
Pioneers of Underwater Acoustics Medal” from the Acoustical Society
of America, of which he was a Fellow.
In March 1946, Claude joined the faculty of the UT Austin physics department.
He advanced rapidly up the academic ladder to become an associate professor
in 1950 and a full professor in 1953. He served as chairman of the department
from 1957 through 1962. It was during this period that the department started
the effort in relativity with the addition of Alfred Schild and other important
figures to the faculty. Claude played an especially vital role in education
for the acoustics community. In a period in which physics departments in
general were phasing out of acoustics work, he continued to teach courses
in the subject and, by serving as supervising professor, provided an avenue
by which graduate students could specialize in acoustics. During this period
he supervised the work of 27 students for the PhD degree and 30 for the
master's degree. Among his students were leaders of the growth of science
and technology in Austin, including Chester McKinney and Loyd Hampton,
former directors of the Applied Research Laboratory, Richard Lane, founder
of Tracor, and James Truchard, a cofounder of National Instruments. In
1965, the Department of Geological Sciences decided to strengthen its program
in geophysics. Budget constraints and other commitments precluded new hires
in geophysics at the time, and Claude graciously taught a graduate and
undergraduate course in geophysics during 1972-75 and also served on graduate
student committees. His physics background provided a different perspective
on various pedagogical departmental issues and breadth on PhD committees.
In 1976 he elected to take early retirement, bringing to a close a highly
productive 31-year career in the UT physics department. His research work
has been documented in some 69 published papers (18 in The Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America), numerous technical reports and
oral presentations, and 4 patents. In response to a request from the U.S.
Navy, he wrote a textbook, Signal Processing of Acoustic Waves,
which was published in 1969. Details of his published works are contained
in the collection of published papers which was issued by Applied Research
Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin, in 1978. Although electromagnetic
and acoustic wave propagation were his primary interests, the bounds on
his range of intellect is reflected in two publications: “On the
Mechanics of Spitting in the African Spitting Cobra” and “Scientists
on Postage Stamps.”
He was survived by his wife, Louise, a writer and artist; his son, Wendell
Horton, a professor of physics at the University, and wife, Elisabeth;
and his daughter, Margaret Elaine Morefield. He is also survived by his
grandson, John W. Horton, and his wife, Johauna, of Santa Barbara, California,
and their children, Jaclyn, Jayna, and Joseph, and his grandson, Mike A.
Horton, and his wife, Melissa, of Santa Clara, California. Claude Horton
was a gentleman and scholar in the truest sense of the words. He served
his country with his science, his university with his wisdom and insight,
and his family with devotion and care. He will be missed by his friends,
colleagues, and family.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution was prepared by Professors Austin M. Gleeson (chair),
Thomas A. Griffy, Earle F. McBride, and A. Wilson Nolle, and Chester McKinney,
director emeritus of the Applied Research Laboratories.
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