Obituaries

John Tyler Caldwell

former university chancellor

Dr. John Tyler Caldwell ('32) of Raleigh, N.C., died Oct. 13, 1995. He was 83.

Caldwell, a Yazoo City native, served as chancellor of North Carolina State University from 1959 to 1975.

After receiving his bachelor's degree from Mississippi State, he earned master's degrees from Duke University and Columbia University and a doctoral degree from Princeton University in 1939.

He taught at Holmes Junior College in Goodman and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

He was president of Alabama College in Montevallo for five years and president of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for seven years before accepting the chancellorship at NCSU.

There, Caldwell distinguished himself as "a champion of education and civil rights during a critical period for North Carolina and the nation," according to current NCSU Chancellor Larry K. Monteith. Caldwell was credited with calming fears about integration and social change and with encouraging campus diversity.

During his tenure, the school's enrollment grew from 6,000 to more than 15,000, and was transformed from a regional technical school to a major research university with broad emphasis on science and humanities. North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, who was a senior at NCSU when Caldwell arrived as chancellor, said that under Caldwell's leadership, the school "rose to a new level as a great comprehensive university."

After stepping down as NCSU chancellor in 1975, Caldwell taught political science there, served as president of the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies, and served as a trustee of Harvard University, the National Humanities Center, and Warren Wilson College. He also was chairman of N.C. Common Cause and led a successful campaign for a $104 million Wake County (N.C.) school bond issue.

In 1987, he won the North Carolina Award, the state's highest honor.

In 1988, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges named Caldwell one of Mississippi State's 10 distinguished alumni.

"All of us associated with Mississippi State can take immense pride in John Tyler Caldwell's accomplishments as a graduate of this institution," said President Donald Zacharias. "His contributions to higher education were significant and lasting. And he was a truly delightful and inspiring gentleman."

An editorial that appeared in The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer following his death stated that, "the thing people remember most about John Caldwell is not how he helped build a comprehensive university and a vibrant engine of the state's economy. They remember his warmth, his affection for people, and his interest in building a decent community."

Jerry H. Booth

physicist

Jerry H. Booth ('64) of Arlington, Va., died Aug. 31, 1995. He was 54.

A Mathiston native, Booth was an award-winning physicist and engineer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, having worked for the government for the past 30 years.

He worked with NASA's Saturn V and Apollo space programs from 1965 to 1970 and was involved in pioneering research involving lasers in holography.

He then was an aerospace engineer with the Naval Weapons Engineering Support Activity at the Washington Navy Yard, where he worked on the Sikorsky H53 helicopter. From 1979 to 1985, he was a warheads engineer with the Office of Naval Intelligence.

In 1985, he joined the Defense Intelligence Agency. His research there disclosed the strategic and mechanical capabilities of the Chinese Silkworm missile. While at the DIA, he received a Joint Meritorious Unit Award for work in aiding U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War.

Booth did doctoral work in physics at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.

He was recognized as an expert on conventional and fuel-air explosives, including nuclear warheads, missiles, and exotic explosives. He was a member of the national Joint Technical Group for Munitions Effectiveness and a member of the nuclear weapons working group of the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee.

Booth was fluent in five languages and was an honorary member of the Howard University Chorus and a member of the Washington (D.C.) Judo Club, where he attained a brown belt.

He was a founding member, with NASA Director Werner Von Braun, of the Astronomy Association in Huntsville, Ala., and helped Von Braun in efforts to build an observatory there.

David L. Trammell Jr.

professor emeritus

Dr. David Lloyd Trammell Jr. ('58, M.S. '65, Ph.D. '70) of Starkville died Dec. 28, 1995. He was 62.

Trammell was associated professionally with Mississippi State from 1953, when he served as a 4-H leader and assistant county agent in Sharkey County, until 1986, when he retired as assistant to the director of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

He had served as leader of the Extension Marketing Department and was a faculty member of the Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Education departments.

Trammell was considered one of the South's leading dairy specialists.

He was a member of the Mississippi Agricultural and Industrial Board from 1976 to 1979.

Most recently, he operated his own consulting firm, Multi-Marketing Associates. He was active in the Mississippi High School ActivitiesAssociation and was an SEC track and field official.