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IN MEMORIAM
EMMETT LEROY HUDSPETH
Emmett Leroy Hudspeth was born
to be a scientist and a teacher. Tall, 6'4", and distinguished,
always dressed in a suit and tie, which for an experimental physicist
was unusual even in his generation, he was the ideal image of
the senior professor. From his first exposure to education, it
was clear that he was an outstanding student of science. His
appetite for knowledge was huge. As a teenager, he amused himself
by virtually memorizing the "Book of Knowledge."
Hudspeth was born December 3, 1916, in Denton, Texas. He was educated in
the public schools of Texas, and was valedictorian at the Arlington High
School in 1933. Emmett attended Rice University and earned Phi Beta Kappa
and a bachelor's degree in 1937. He stayed at Rice for graduate study and
completed a PhD under the direction of H. A. Wilson in 1940, at the age
of 23.
Emmett's first postdoctoral job was at the Bartol Research Foundation (now
Institute), located on the Swarthmore College campus in Pennsylvania. With
the outbreak of World War II, he joined the war effort at the MIT Radiation
Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He worked with I. I. Rabi and Tom
Bonner in the group that helped develop radar. After the war, he returned
to work at the Bartol Research Foundation, where he was a fellow and later
the assistant director.
In 1950, Emmett joined the physics department at The University
of Texas at Austin. He served as chairman of the department and
as graduate advisor.
He was an excellent and dedicated teacher of undergraduate and graduate
students. He was among the first nationally to recognize the importance
of teaching physics to liberal arts students, and he developed and taught
what has become known nationally as a "Physics for Poets" course.
Dr. Hudspeth was also the founder of the University's Center for Nuclear
Physics, and he served as director for many of its formative years. This
effort led a government-funded program devoted to research using a high-energy
particle accelerator, and made the University one of the world's premier
institutions for pioneering research on the internal structure of the nucleus.
Emmett supervised twenty-five dissertations in nuclear physics and medical
physics. His students admired him for many qualities. He was always available
and approachable, and yet his mind was so quick and his knowledge of nuclear
physics so profound that they all had to respect him. He had an endless
series of experiments planned, seeking new ground and knowledge in nuclear
physics. He was willing to share success with his students. In those days,
it was customary for dissertation results, if they could be published,
to be sent in with the professor as the senior author. Emmett authored
and submitted such results with the student as the senior author. That
graciousness was one of many reasons his students chose to honor him by
establishing the Emmett L. Hudspeth Centennial Lectureship in Physics.
Besides Emmett's success as an academic, he also had an entrepreneurial
side. At the age of fourteen, he bought a small printing press and founded
the "American Printing Company." This was not a successful operation. In
1956, though, he expanded his research interests and founded the Texas
Nuclear Corporation, which initially did contract research on shielding
for the ill-fated nuclear powered aircraft. Under his direction, the corporation
went into the business of producing small particle accelerators for commercial
purposes, and, finally, very successfully, medical and oil well diagnostic
instruments. This business was later acquired by the Nuclear Chicago Corporation,
which then merged with G. D. Searle & Co. Later, he was founder and president
of the Medical Monitor Research Corporation.
A man of rich, well thought out, and varied opinions, Emmett was very fond
of debate and discussion. At heart, he was what is now described as a fiscal
conservative and social moderate. He was incredibly well informed. Not
one to just discuss his beliefs, he lived by them. Ultimately, in 1978,
to bring these views to a larger audience, he took a leave of absence and
ran unsuccessfully for Congress from the 10th District on the Republican
ticket against an unbeatable opponent, the Honorable J. Jake Pickle.
Emmett was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science and a fellow of the American Physical Society. Published extensively
in the field of experimental nuclear physics, he was best known for his
pioneering research on the energy levels and properties of light nuclei.
Emmett Hudspeth passed away on January 1, 2000. He was survived by a daughter
and her husband, three sons and their wives, eight grandchildren, and two
brothers.
<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
a special committee consisting of Professors Austin M. Gleeson
(chair), Thomas A. Griffy, and Kenneth W. Gentle.
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