In Memoriam
John Fredrick (Jack) Hamilton  
(1928 - 2009)

 

 

HAMILTON, JOHN FREDRICK (JACK) - Knoxville, TN died on December 16, 2009 of natural causes at his home.

 

Born March 19, 1928 in Knoxville, Tennessee to Ruth Lyon Hamilton and Frederick Ward Hamilton. He attended Knoxville High School and the University of Tennessee. At the University he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Omicron Delta Kappa Honorary Fraternity and The Scarabbean Society. He was president of his senior class, a Torchbearer, chosen to be The Volunteer, the outstanding member of the junior class by the outgoing senior class, and received the Omicron Delta Kappa award for the outstanding member of the senior class. He graduated in 1950 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics. He married Eleanor Lyle of Rogersville, Tennessee, who became the mother of his three children.

 

He was employed from 1950 to 1986 as a research physicist in the Research Laboratories of the Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, New York. His research was in the Theory of the Photographic Process, in attempts to find a replacement for silver salts in this process, in the properties of small clusters of metal atoms and in catalysis.  He was one of the world's foremost expert on the theory and mechanism of the photographic process.  He published over ninety-five technical papers, chapters in scientific journals and books, and wrote an additional eighty internal technical reports. He also presented over fifty invited lectures in the United States and abroad. He held membership in Sigma Xi, The Electron Microscopy Society of America, The American Vacuum Society, The Royal Photographic Society, and was a Fellow of The Society of Photographic Scientists and Engineers, The American Association for the Advancement of Science and The American Physical Society. At the time of his retirement he held the position of Research Fellow, the highest in the Kodak Research Laboratories in the non-management track.

 

He also was a member of the Adjunct Faculty at both the University of Rochester and The Rochester Institute of Technology, where he taught courses from time to time.

 

In 1978 he was married to Anne Robinson Howard of Knoxville Tennessee, who died of cancer in 2001. In 1990 the Hamiltons moved to Kiawah Island, South Carolina, where Jack was active in matters having to do with wildlife and nature. He was a member of the Kiawah Island program for protection of Sea Turtles and for several years led that program. He has had an abiding interest in duplicate bridge and in 2003 became both Life Master and Bronze Life Master in The American Contract Bridge League.

 

Jack is survived by his wife, Ann Gordon Dempster Hamilton, formerly a high school and college sweetheart in Knoxville, Tennessee, to whom he was married in 2002. The Hamilton's returned to live in Knoxville in 2007. He is also survived by a daughter, Martha Hamilton of Norco, Louisiana; two sons and daughters-in-law: Joseph W. and Katie Hamilton of Tulsa, Oklahoma and Thomas L. and Christine Hamilton of Mahopec, New York; two granddaughters, Jessica Hamilton and Raena Hamilton; one grandson, Ian Hamilton; stepchildren Martha and Mike Ayres, Dallis and Lewis Howard Jr., Kittrell Smallman of Knoxville, Cathy Howard of Mountain View California, Joseph Dempster Smallman of Atlanta, Rob Gielsesman of Santa Rosa California and nine great grandchildren and a special friend, Mrs. Nancy Hall of Kiawah Island, SC. 

 

Jacks body was donated to medical research. The memorial service was held on December 28 at the Church of Ascension, 800 South Northshore Drive Knoxville, TN.