Robert Harold McFarland was born on January 10, 1918, near Severy, Kansas, four days after the family farm house was destroyed by fire. He died on September 14, 2008, at the age of 90.
He attended Kansas State Teacher's College (KSTC) and in 1940 was awarded both a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics and a B.A. in Education. While at KSTC, he played football, taught physics laboratories, was President of the junior class, and valedictorian. Bob went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He obtained his masters degree in Physics in 1943 and for a year he was a full‑time instructor at the university. He then took a job in war time research for three years with Sylvania Electric Corporation where three patents resulted from his work relative to the erratic starting of fluorescent lamps. This work ultimately lead to development of rapid starting ballasts and lamps and their commercialization. In 1946 he returned to the University of Wisconsin and used his work at Sylvania to complete work on his Ph.D. in Physics one year later.
From 1947 till 1960 he rose through the ranks of faculty positions at Kansas State University (KSU) at Manhattan where he became Professor of Physics and Director of the Nuclear Laboratory, which he founded and ultimately involved forty‑five people from various campus departments. While at KSU, he was supported by several research grants. The first Ph.D. student in physics at KSU was his student.
In the spring of 1960, he was recruited by Edward Teller to an appointment at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, California. He spent nine years at the Radiation Laboratory where he served as head of an atomic physics group working on atomic phenomena of importance to controlled fusion. He published several papers per year including a paper which explained a long standing problem on the puzzling aspects of polarization of electron‑induced radiation from helium.
In March, 1969, Bob became the Dean of the Graduate School at UMR. He held this position for ten years. He made great efforts to improve the academic quality of beginning graduate students at the university, as well as the quality of graduate student dissertations. These efforts clearly increased the stature of a graduate degree from UMR. While serving as Dean, he was also an active member of the Council of Graduate Schools and in 1972 was appointed by the council for four years to the Graduate Record Examination Board. During this time frame he also served as a consultant to a number of universities regarding their graduate programs. During the 1974‑75 year he served in Columbia, Missouri, as Interim Vice‑President for Academic Affairs for the four campus university of Missouri system. From 1979 to 1983 he was Director of Institutional Analysis and Planning at UMR.
During the 1980‑81 year, "Mac" was a Visiting Professor at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where at the request of the Office of Fusion Energy he worked initially overseeing six graduate students on an atomic physics fusion project involving negative ion beams. His research efforts also involved resonant electron transfer and excitation. From 1982 to 1984, he took leave from UMR and was appointed Program Manager for Atomic Physics Research at the Office of Fusion Energy, Department of Energy, Germantown, Maryland, where he reviewed proposals for high energy physics research grants. He retired on January 1, 1985.
During his forty‑seven year career in science, Dr. McFarland published more than 110 publications and was awarded six patents. He was affiliated with various professional societies including being a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He also belonged to many academic honorary fraternities.
Bob contributed greatly to the local community. Among many activities, he was a long time member of Kiwanis serving in many roles including many club and division offices and he received Kiwanis International's greatest award: the Tablet of Honor. He actively supported the Boy Scouts and both his sons were Eagle Scouts.
