David Saxon, distinguished professor of theoretical physics, fourteenth president of the University of California, chairman of the MIT Corporation, died on December 8, 2005. Born in 1920 in St. Paul, Minnesota, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1941 and Ph.D. in 1944. Early during his undergraduate years, David met his future wife Shirley. They were married in 1940 and raised six daughters: Peggy, Barbara, Linda, Vicky, Cathy and Charlotte.
In 1947, David joined the UCLA faculty as Assistant Professor of theoretical nuclear physics. In 1950, soon after his arrival at UCLA, David was one of 31 faculty members dismissed from the University of California for defying the requirement, instituted after David had arrived, that all faculty members sign an oath of loyalty and declare that they were not members of the Communist Party. Colleagues and friends urged him to sign the oath, as it did not materially affect his ability to act and speak as he had before. However, Dave stood firm. He did not object to the oath, per se, but held that it was inconsistent with the concept of intellectual freedom that should prevail in every university. By signing the oath, David felt he would be agreeing that this intellectual freedom was not sacrosanct. Following his dismissal, he took a position with the National Bureau of Standards. Shortly thereafter, the California Supreme Court invalidated the UC loyalty oath requirement, and David rejoined the UCLA faculty in 1952. The courage and integrity that he, a young Assistant Professor, showed at the time of the loyalty oath, made him a model for his colleagues; these qualities were to be evident throughout his entire career.
David Saxon’s arrival at UCLA coincided with a period of rapid growth in the UCLA Department of Physics, as young physicists trained and seasoned in the years immediately preceding the Second World War and during that conflict brought the cutting edge of research in physics as well as a fresh perspective to the campus. This group, known informally as the “new crop,” constituted the vanguard in the transformation of the department to a large, full-spectrum, research and educational enterprise.
David Saxon’s early research on electromagnetic theory began during the Second World War at the MIT Radiation Laboratory and continued at UCLA. However, at the end of the war his interest was already focused on nuclear physics, and he quickly became a leading theorist in the field. He is well known for his utilization of variational methods in scattering calculations. His work on the optical model of the nucleus was important and influential. Perhaps less well known is the early work he did in developing the elements of the coherent state representation in quantum mechanics. Especially impressive was his eclecticism. In a period of increasing specialization, he retained the ability to comment knowledgeably on just about every aspect of physics.
David Saxon also excelled as a teacher, lecturing with great success at all levels, both undergraduate and graduate. His undergraduate textbook on quantum mechanics, first published in 1968, has the status of a classic in the field.
From 1963 to 1966, he served as Chair of the Department of Physics, the first of the “new crop” to be elected to lead the department. Subsequently, he took the post of Dean of Physical Sciences before being named to UCLA’s top academic position—now known as Executive Vice Chancellor—during an era of great student unrest and activism. The qualities he displayed as a junior faculty member when faced with the challenge of the loyalty oath, coupled with his skill and wisdom as an administrator, were displayed most notably during this difficult period. According to former UCLA Chancellor Charles Young, “David stood tall and unwavering for what was right and was instrumental in making the ‘right’ happen.” Chancellor Young also stated, “It is simply not possible for me to describe how much David Saxon meant to me when I served as Chancellor during difficult times in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To those who worked with him, David did not just lead the academic establishment of UCLA—he was the academic establishment.”
In 1974, David Saxon left UCLA to become provost of the University of California system. In 1975, he was named its 14th president. As president of the UC system, he was an energetic advocate for the academic quality and public benefits of the university. His term as president coincided with the passage of Proposition 13, the voter-approved initiative that restricted property tax assessments. President Saxon worked to preserve the university’s many strengths in the face of fiscal uncertainty while also traveling the state to make the case for appropriate public investment in higher education.
The twin Keck Telescopes on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii are another monument to David Saxon as UC President. Convinced that computer technology would allow the construction of optical telescopes featuring a vastly enhanced light-gathering power, he vigorously supported UC personnel engaged in the design of a telescope based on entirely new design principles. The design report developed in was then called the UC Ten Meter Telescope Project served as basis for the construction of the Keck Telescopes, still the world’s most powerful optical telescope complex.
“David Saxon was one of the great presidents of the University of California,” said Richard Atkinson, UC President Emeritus. “He will be remembered for many reasons, but especially for his absolute dedication to the best interests of the university, to the ideal of public service and to the welfare of students, who always held a special place in his heart.” Former California Governor Edmund G “Jerry” Brown, with whom David had occasion to clash as UC President, recalled, “I remember him as a tireless fighter for the independence and well-being of the university.”
David Saxon joined the MIT Corporation in 1977. In 1983, having stepped down from the presidency of the University of California he assumed the chairmanship of that body. He led the Corporation until his retirement from this post in 1990.
After returning to UCLA from MIT he began to suffer from macular degeneration, to which he characteristically responded by embarking on an extensive reading program with the aid of new technologies for the partially sighted, as well as help from the Braille Institute, and especially from his devoted wife Shirley. Even during this difficult period one was invariably impressed—whatever the issue—by his integrity, careful analysis and precise expression. At the same time his warmth and quick wit were always a delight to those who knew him. In these latter years, his colleagues remember him as a bracing presence at departmental meetings, whose wisdom and insights often cleared up a complex and troubling issue.
Over the course of his long and distinguished career, David Saxon received a number of awards and honorary degrees, including a Distinguished Teaching Award from UCLA. He also received the Royal Order of the Northern Star (Nordstjarnan), was an Honorary Citizen of Georg-August University, Göttingen, an Honorary Member, University of California Alumni Association and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded several honorary doctorates and sat on boards of directors, advisory councils and oversight committees of a variety of institutions.
David Saxon’s name lives on at UCLA. In 1986, the UC Regents approved the naming of the endowed David Saxon Presidential Chair. That Chair has since grown to three, one in the Department of Mathematics and two in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The David and Shirley Saxon Student Residential Suites sit in the northwest corner of the campus.
David is survived by Shirley, their six daughters and six grandchildren.
