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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION   1567

Dr. Compton was graduated from the College of Wooster, and held M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. Over twenty United States and foreign educational institutions, including Harvard University, Oxford and the University of Chicago, conferred honorary degrees on him.

After several fellowships and an instructorship in physics, Dr. Compton served from 1920 to 1923 as Professor of Physics and Head of the Department at Washington University, St. Louis. From 1923 to 1929 he was Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. From then until 1945 he held the following posts:

1929-45 Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor
1940-45 Chairman Department of Physics and Dean Division of Physical Sciences
1942-45 Director of Metallurgy, Atomic Project

Dr. Compton directed the work which led to the first atomic reactor and thereafter the atomic bomb and the production of plutonium. He discovered the "Compton effect" which won him a share of the 1927 Nobel Prize with Professor Wilson of Cambridge.

From 1945 until 1953, when he became Distinguished Service Professor Natural Philosophy, Dr. Compton was the Chancellor of Washington University. At the time of his death he was Professor-at-Large at the University of California.

In 1916 he married Betty C. McCloskey. They had two sons; Arthur Alan, with the State Department in Manila, and John Joseph, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Compton's length of service as a Regent was exceeded by only one member of the present Board. During his four terms Dr. Compton's advice proved unfailingly helpful and his broad interests in the many facets of the Smithsonian activities made him a most valued member of the Board. His wisdom and counsel in the affairs of the Board of Regents contributed in a most significant way to the present-day development of the Institution. He had a broad vision of the role of the Smithsonian in American life.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That these resolutions be entered in the minutes of the Board of Regents and that a copy be sent to Mrs. Compton with an expression of the dep personal sense of loss felt by the Regents at the death of their distinguished fellow member.

The members of the Board expressed sincere regret at the death of Dr. Arthur H. Compton. On motion by Mr. Cannon, seconded by Dr. Fleming, and carried it was

VOTED that the above resolutions be recorded in the minutes and a copy be sent to Mrs. Compton.