[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 13, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E27]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR JACK DAVIDSON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 13, 2010

  Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Kansas University Professor John P. [Jack] Davidson, who died on 
January 10th.
  Jack Davidson, along with his wife Mary, was a consistent voice for 
enlightened, progressive leadership in Lawrence and Douglas County, 
Kansas. I was proud to have him as a constituent and very much 
appreciated his thoughtful advice on many of the pending issues of the 
day. Jack was a candidate for the Kansas Board of Education in 1998, 
the same year I first was a candidate for the U.S. Congress, and he 
later served a term as an elected member of the Lawrence U.S.D. No. 497 
School Board. Jack was a longtime, dedicated Democratic Party activist 
whose dedication, hard work and creativity will be missed by all who 
knew him and worked with him through the past several decades. I am 
pleased to include with this tribute an obituary for Jack that appeared 
in the Lawrence Journal World.
  Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, for this opportunity to pay 
tribute to a Kansan who worked tirelessly to make his community, his 
nation and the world a better place.

            [From the Lawrence Journal World, Jan. 12, 2010]

       Jack Davidson (John P. Davidson) died at home in Lawrence 
     on January 10. A memorial service is planned at the 
     Ecumenical Christian Center on Feb. 15.
       He was born on July 22, 1924, in Los Angeles, the son of 
     John Pirnie Davidson and Istalia Rhine.
       After graduating from Glendale High School, Jack followed 
     his interests in rocketry and science to the University of 
     California, Berkeley.
       From 1943 to 1946, he served in the Army Signal Corps in 
     the European Theater of Operations until he was honorably 
     discharged as a first sergeant.
       Returning to Berkeley, he graduated from the University of 
     California in 1948, with highest honors in physics.
       As a graduate student at Washington University in St. 
     Louis, he worked with Mary Rieser and others to organize the 
     Student Committee for the Admission of Negroes. Although most 
     students supported that effort, Arthur Holly Compton, the 
     Chancellor, declined to challenge community traditions at 
     that time. Jack and Mary were married in September 1949.
       Jack received his doctorate in 1952, working under Eugene 
     Feenberg. He did post-graduate work at Columbia University 
     and eventually published more than 40 research papers, a 
     monograph, and encyclopedia entries.
       He taught at the Brazilian Center for Physical Research in 
     Rio, and at the Joint Establishment for Nuclear Energy 
     Research in Lillestrom, Norway. His research for the 
     Norwegian merchant marine on the possibility of outfitting 
     the fleet with nuclear reactors included the possibility that 
     the reactor core might breach containment and melt down 
     through the hull. This was the first use of the term 
     ``meltdown'' in nuclear reactor literature.
       He taught and did research at Rensselaer Polytechnic 
     Institute through 1966, and after that at the University of 
     Kansas. He was chairman of the Department of Physics and 
     Astronomy from 1977 to 1989. He also taught at Tsing Hua 
     University in Taiwan in the summer of 1969.
       Jack Davidson led summer camps in astronomy for high school 
     students for many years. He is a member of the American 
     Astronomical Society, the American Physical Society, and the 
     Kansas Academy of Sciences.
       After his retirement in 1996, he served on the USD 497 
     School Board from 1999 to 2003. He was also active in local 
     Democratic Party politics and in flying clubs.
       He was preceded in death by his brother, Duncan Davidson. 
     He is survived by his wife, Mary Davidson, of the home, and 
     by four sons, John Pirnie Davidson III and his wife, Shirley 
     Schaeffer, Scarsdale, New York; Robert Kenneth Davidson and 
     his wife, Monica Davidson, Ottawa, KS; Tom Davidson and his 
     wife, Diane Davidson, Lexington, MA; and Jim Davidson, 
     Lawrence, KS; and by six grandchildren, Jessica, Julia, Anna, 
     Nathan, Owen, and Alice.
       In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be 
     made to the Ecumenical Christian Center, 1204 Oread.

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