 
Charles Bockelman |
Physicist and Deputy Provost
Charles Bockelman, professor emeritus of physics and Yale's first deputy provost for the sciences, died on June 6 at age 79.
Professor Bockelman's research focused on nuclear structure physics. In the late 1950s, he developed an important correlation between neutron transfer and neutron capture reactions, which served as a cornerstone of the then-emerging utilization of these reactions for the measurement of nuclear structure. He also played a key role during the 1960s in the installation and management of both the upgraded electron linear accelerator and the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory's MP tandem Van de Graff accelerator at Yale.
Born Nov. 29, 1922, in San Francisco, Mr. Bockelman grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduating from high school, he became a page in the Washington, D.C. office of Senator Harry Truman, while simultaneously studying physics and chemistry at George Washington University. He served for four years in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific during World War II, and after his discharge in 1945, went on to earn Ph.B. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin in 1947 and 1951, respectively.
During his undergraduate years Mr. Bockelman worked in experimental nuclear physics with Heinz Barschall, a former Los Alamos scientist. He went on to do research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for four years before joining the Yale faculty in 1955 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1958 and to professor in 1965.
During his early years at Yale, Professor Bockelman used a 4 MeV high-intensity electron accelerator and MIT's Van de Graff accelerator in his research. In the 1960s, when Professor D. Allan Bromley established the Arthur W. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory centered around a tandem Van de Graff heavy ion accelerator, he asked Professor Bockelman to take on the responsibility for the implementation of a large multigap magnetic spectrometer, which became the focus of Professor Bockelman's research for the next decade at that laboratory.
Professor Bockelman taught both elementary and advanced courses in Yale College and occasional courses in the Graduate School. Describing him as an instructor who was "always coherent and clear," Robert Adair, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Physics, notes that Professor Bockelman's "work with his graduate students introducing them to the techniques and ethos of research was especially important to him."
His colleague's research career, however, "was slowed by demands on his citizenship," adds Adair. "As well as being clever in science, Bockelman was a wise man, intelligent in human affairs, responsible and sensible. Thus, in 1966, Bockelman was asked to take on the position of director of the physical sciences at Yale." Three years later, he was asked to take on the newly created position of deputy provost for science (a title changed a decade later to simply "deputy provost"). During his 20 years in the Provost's Office, he facilitated the construction of new buildings, the implementation of computer systems, getting new faculty settled, and maintaining the programs of senior faculty, and also oversaw the growth of the sciences.
During his long career Professor Bockelman also served as acting provost in 1979 and twice filled in as acting dean of the Graduate School, in 1975 and again during the 1983-1984 academic year.
Despite the demands of administrative work, Professor Bockelman published nine papers with students and colleagues after 1970. Altogether, he published more than 50 scientific papers or articles, which were printed in major scientific publications.
Bockelman returned to teaching in the physics department in 1987 and served as director of undergraduate studies in physics from 1990 until his retirement in 1992. During this time he focused on converting the spectrograph he had installed in the 1960s to a large-scale scattering chamber for heavy ion studies.
In addition to his scientific and administrative accomplishments, Professor Bockelman was a dedicated horseman who earned his colors riding with the Fairfield County Hounds on his horse, "Shorty."
Professor Bockelman is survived by his wife, the former Christina Kennedy; his daughter, Faith Edwards, and grandchildren Torrie and Dillon Edwards, of New York City; a stepson, Michael Nesi, also of New York City; and his former wife and friend, Elizabeth Ann Gallie, of North Carolina.
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