Calvin Class, emeritus professor of physics, dies at 96

Calvin Class, a professor of physics at Rice for 34 years, died April 14 in Houston at the age of 96.

He was a native of Baltimore and earned his undergraduate degree and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps Enlisted Reserve as a physicist with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in Hampton, Virginia. He joined the Rice faculty in 1952.

Calvin Class

Class and his late wife Bernice were the first masters of Jones College, serving from 1957 to 1965. He was also a featured speaker at Rice Centennial UnConvention in 2012.

W. Foster Rich ’67, who earned his masters and doctorate degrees at Rice with Class as his thesis adviser, said the professor researched nuclear physics, particularly the structures of atomic nuclei, through the Van de Graaff accelerator acquired by the Rice Nuclear Laboratory (later the Bonner lab).

“Dr. Class was a pleasure to work with,” Rich said. “He was mild-mannered, but with a steely determination. He enjoyed interacting with his graduate students, and was likely to show up in the nuclear lab at any hour of the day or night to catalyze spirited discussions about the latest experimental or analytical results.”

Rich noted Class’ instruction went far beyond the classroom and lab. “He and his wife Bernice took my wife and me out to dinner several times to very nice restaurants,” Rich said. “He had perceived that we hadn’t a clue as to when each fork, knife and spoon were to be used. He was right! His and Bernice’s gentle tutelage was wonderful.”

Another alumnus, Earl Vanzant ’62, recalled taking Class’ sophomore physics course in 1958. “In addition to the physics knowledge he imparted, it was interesting that the math and formulas involved were more advanced than what we were studying in Math 200, so he was having to bring us up to speed in math as well as physics,” Vanzant recalled. “Not only did we get a good education in physics, this also gave us an edge in math class.”

Class won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955, and that year he spent six months working alongside Niels Bohr at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen, now the Bohr Institute.

He is survived by his daughter, Martha.

A memorial service will be held on a date to be announced by Geo. H. Lewis and Sons Funeral Directors.