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Emeritus physics professor Dwight Damon dies- September 25, 2006 |
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Dwight Damon, 75, emeritus professor of physics, died on Sept. 15, in Decatur, Ga., after a short illness. He was a resident of Storrs from 1970 to 2005, when he and his wife, June, moved to Decatur. Born in Northampton, Mass., he grew up in Amherst, Mass., and graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in physics in 1953. His class was among the first at Amherst in which physics was a part of the core curriculum, taken with calculus by all freshmen. He was a member of Theta Xi fraternity and the scholarly honorary societies Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi. Damon received his Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Purdue University in 1961. He was a research scientist at the Westinghouse Electric Co. Research Laboratory in Pittsburgh from 1961 to 1970, when he joined the faculty at UConn, hired by the physics department head, Paul Klemens, with whom he had worked at Westinghouse. His first research at UConn involved the revival and continuation of a program in low temperature physics started by Professor Charles Reynolds. At UConn he helped develop and was an active researcher in the Polymer Program of the Institute of Materials Science (IMS). An associate director of IMS, he was instrumental in creating its Electrical Insulation Research Center. He also implemented the Polymer Program's polymer physics curriculum. He retired in 1997. Damon is survived by his wife and their two daughters: Candace Perry Damon and her husband, David Jacobson, and their son; and Inger Kristina Damon and her husband, Gregory Armstrong. Inger Damon received an M.D.-Ph.D. degree from the UConn Health Center in 1992, and Gregory received an M.D. degree from the Health Center in 1989. Both now work for the Centers for Disease Control. A memorial gathering will take place at Zenny's Restaurant on Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. Donations in Damon's memory may be made to the University of Connecticut Foundation Inc. Please indicate on the check that the donation is in memory of Prof. Dwight Damon. Send to the University of Connecticut Foundation Inc., 2390 Alumni Drive, Unit 3206, Storrs, CT 06269-3206. |
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