• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

IN REVIEW IN MEMORIAM Remembering Robert Sproull President Emeritus championed undergraduate education, affordability, and Laser Lab. By Sara Miller Robert Sproull, an internationally known physicist, arrived at Rochester as vice pres- ident and provost in the tumultuous year of 1968 and immediately helped to man- age campus unrest resulting from the Viet- nam War. He succeeded W. Allen Wallis as president in 1970 but continued to work hand-in-hand with Wallis, who became chancellor. In 1975, Sproull assumed full executive responsibility. His presidency was distinguished by strong support for the humanities and the sciences, especially within undergradu- ate education, as well as a commitment to maintain the University’s affordability, resisting steep tuition increases. He led a capital campaign that ended in 1980 and exceeded the $102 million goal set in 1975. Sproull died on October 9 at the age of LASER LEGACY: A center at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics was named for Sproull, 96. “The University of Rochester has lost a who helped lead the development of the lab at Rochester. giant, one of its treasures,” says President Joel Seligman. “Bob Sproull was president its growing physics program. He organized and survival of the Laboratory for Laser En- of the University when the nation suffered and was the first director of both the Lab- ergetics,” says Robert McCrory, University double-digit inflation and recession. Such oratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics Professor, vice president and vice provost, obstacles might have diverted less com- and the Center for Materials Research at and Laser Lab director and CEO. “Starting mitted leaders, but not Bob Sproull. The Cornell. from his first year at Rochester, he expend- University benefited from his wisdom and He was director of the Advanced Re- ed extraordinary time and effort in support counsel.” search Projects Agency in Arlington, Vir- of the development of the laboratory.” Born and raised in Illinois, Sproull at- ginia, from 1963 to 1965, reporting to the Retiring in 1984, Sproull became pres- tended Deep Springs College, a work-study U.S. Secretary of Defense and supporting ident emeritus, professor emeritus of junior college on a cattle ranch in Califor- a range of programs from nuclear test de- physics, and life trustee. After retiring, he nia. He could not afford to accept a fel- tection to computer networking. He would continued to lend his expertise to many lowship offered by Harvard. There was no also serve as chairman of the Defense Sci- corporate boards, chaired a committee of physics instructor at Deep Springs, but he ence Board from 1968 to 1970. the National Academy of Sciences to re- became intrigued by reading about the sub- Sproull returned to Cornell in 1965, organize the Institute of Medicine, per- ject and transferred to Cornell after three when he became the university’s vice pres- formed advisory work for the departments years of part-time study. He received a ident for academic affairs. Because of his of Energy and Defense, and served on mis- bachelor’s degree in English in 1940, and a defense experience and scientific exper- sions to Kazakhstan and to the Republic PhD in physics from Cornell in 1943. tise, he was picked the next year to lead a of Georgia for the International Executive As World War II approached, Sproull national committee evaluating the search Service. developed an experimental thesis at Cor- for a missing U.S. hydrogen bomb after a Sproull and his wife, Mary, were married nell, which became classified because of its B-52 and an Air Force tanker crashed off for 70 years before she died in 2012 at age application to microwave magnetrons. He the coast of Spain. His committee rescued 93. She was a talented painter, and the cou- then went to RCA Laboratories in Princ- the unpromising mission and located the ple supported arts and education, includ- eton, New Jersey, to work on Navy radar. bomb, helping to avert negative conse- ing the Memorial Art Gallery. In 1999 they He worked at RCA during the day, and in quences for international relations. endowed the position of dean of the faculty the evenings taught physics to Navy and At Rochester, Sproull championed the of Arts, Sciences & Engineering, now held Marine students at Princeton and micro- creation of the Laboratory for Laser Ener- by Provost Peter Lennie. wave theory and technique to Navy and getics, putting the University in the fore- “It has been a tremendous honor to hold industrial engineers at the University of front of research on commercially feasible the deanship bearing the Sproull name,” Pennsylvania. fusion technology in 1970. In 2005, the says Lennie. “Both Bob and his wife, Mary, In 1946, Sproull accepted an assistant Center for Ultra High Intensity Laser Re- were visionary in providing support for ac- professorship in physics at Cornell, where search there was named in his honor. ademic leadership focused on strengthen- he advanced through the faculty ranks of “Bob was essential to the development ing the faculty.”r UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS November–December 2014 ROCHESTER REVIEW 15 3_RochRev_Nov2014_Review.indd 15 10/28/14 1:54 PM.

Load more

  1

Copy Link