Obituary of John Arthur Harvey

Dr. John Arthur Harvey, (Jack), died March 9, 2011, at Methodist Medical Center. John, the son of the late Elizabeth Hummerstone and Albert F. J. Harvey, Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on Dec. 14, 1921. He attended Saskatoon Public Schools, where he obtained the highest grades of all high school students on Grade 12 exams. As a college student at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, John was the recipient of the Engineering Institute of Canada prize in 1944. In 1945, he graduated from Queen’s with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree with honors in Physics, receiving the Governor General’s Medal of Canada for the highest standing in his four years of physics and the Jenkins Trophy, honoring the student bringing the most honor to the school by his athletic and scholastic ability.

Jack attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was awarded his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1950. He continued post-doctoral work at MIT on the Cyclotron before moving to Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1952 as a member of the Original Data Compilation Group. He attended the first Geneva Conference as a representative of the United States, presenting the book Neutron Cross Sections, which he co-authored.

Moving to Oak Ridge in 1956, Jack began his employment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the request of the late Alvin Weinberg on the fast chopper project. He became co-director of the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator in 1965, continuing his research, publications and presentations world-wide on nuclear physics, hosting many international scientists. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the initial Secretary-Treasurer, Division of Nuclear Physics for that organization and continued in this position for twenty years. Jack received multiple awards and honors for his contributions over the years for his research that continues to lead to advancements in particle physics and other applied sciences.

Jack officially retired from ORNL in 1993, but continued offering his expertise as a consultant. He joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1995 as a research professor contributing to ORNL research. Jack was a highly recognized and well-respected national and international nuclear physicist with hundreds of publications to his credit.

John worked a full day at the lab on Friday, March 4th, five days prior to his death.

John was not only a paragon of exceptional academic and professional achievement, but also excelled athletically in swimming and gymnastics. As a youth, John began gymnastics at the YMCA in Saskatoon and continued through high school on the tumbling team as the top man on their human pyramid. While attending Queen’s, he continued gymnastics, occasionally wrestled and was the highlight of the 1945 Queen’s Aquacade, diving from the rafters forty feet above the pool. John resumed his gymnastics career as a co-founder of the original Oak Ridge Gymnastics Club in 1962, coaching and judging for the various apparatus. He taught hundreds of local students over a period of thirty years. He was an avid swimmer and lover of diving and acrobatics and later in life took up Tai Chi. John was active in the Oak Ridge Humane Society and was a former member of the Oak Ridge Kennel Club. John also loved travel; he and his wife traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia.

John is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary; his daughter, Johanne; his son, William and six grandchildren. In addition, he is survived by a sister, Phyllis McLeod and many nieces and nephews. He will be remembered as a compassionate, brilliant, kind, positive, loving man and will be dearly missed by his family and all who knew him.