Obituary of James Poth (1933-2011)

James E. Poth, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Miami University in Ohio, passed away on 12 September 2011 after a long illness.

Born 19 May 1933, Jim received an NROTC scholarship to Miami University, where he graduated in 1955 with a B. S. degree in physics. Commissioned into the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Albany, he served as an instructor at the Naval Air Defense Training Center. After three years in the Navy, he returned to Miami University and earned the M. A. in physics. He went on to Yale University, where he earned an M. S. and Ph. D. in nuclear physics. His research in Boron Induced Transfer Reactions was one of the first dissertations supervised by D. Allan Bromley at Yale. As a Research Staff Physicist Jim continued to study transfer reactions.

In 1966 Jim returned to the Miami Physics Department as assistant professor, and he became full professor in 1976. At NASA-Lewis Research Center in Cleveland he continued nuclear physics research and directed graduate student thesis projects. Jim developed an interest in environmental physics, and he was appointed Affiliate Professor of Miami’s new Institute of Environmental Sciences. From 1974 he served on the Executive Committee of the IES and supervised graduate students in that program. A devoted teacher, Jim had special fondness for his regularly packed classes in Physics of Sports.

In the 1980s Jim was co-director of a curriculum development and in-service program, “Teaching Science with TOYS” (both literally toys and also the acronym for “Terrific Opportunities for Youth Science”). Designed for professional development of elementary and middle-school teachers of the physical sciences, this program received generous NSF funding for a decade. In the 1990s Jim initiated the use at Miami of the University of Washington (UW) Tutorials in Introductory Physics, and he taught UW’s “Physics by Inquiry” course serving future science teachers majoring in elementary or secondary education. He was appointed Affiliate Professor in Miami’s Department of Teacher Education. Jim took important roles in Project Discovery, an NSF-funded Statewide Systematic Initiative project for secondary and middle-school teachers. Led by Nobel Laureate Ken Wilson and Miami’s Jane Butler Kahle, and strongly supported by Ohio Board of Regents and Ohio Department of Education funds, the project guided and supported in-service teachers in implementing inquiry-based instruction in their physical science classes.

In 1999 Jim was invited as Visiting Professor at Curtin University of Technology, Perth Australia. In collaboration with the director of the Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Jim investigated how students’ perception of the classroom environment impacts upon their learning.

During his 38 years of teaching at Miami, Jim served for many years as Chief Adviser for the physics department, and Pre-Medical Adviser for the College. Active in his church and University organizations, he also served as a Judge for the Cincinnati International Wine Festival for 16 years. He is survived by a host of friends and colleagues, and by his loving family: Alice, his wife of 51 years, three children and seven grandchildren. Jim will be greatly missed.