Some History of the Texas A&M Physics Department

Jesse Coon essentially started the Texas A&M Physics Department as a research-oriented department, when he arrived on the train with his wife Libby from the University of Chicago immediately after World War II.

Jesse and Mel Eisner were hired by the department head, Jim Potter, to start the Ph.D. program in physics:

Jesse-Coon-1.mp4.

Jesse Coon, Jim Potter, the department head before Potter, and Joe Ham (who arrived a little later) all received their degrees at the University of Chicago, where they worked with and knew some of the world's leading physicists and chemists:

Jesse-Coon-2.mp4.

Jesse initially had 24 contact hours of teaching, because of the influx of veterans, but still started a molecular spectroscopy lab that trained a substantial number of graduate students and provided a nucleation point for later research programs:

Jesse-Coon-3.mp4.

Just before his 90th birthday, Jesse traveled to Germany and won a swim competition in his age bracket, and for a number of years he held the world record for the butterfly in his bracket. He also owned a large sailboat, where he occasionally hosted faculty, friends, and family. In 2005, the year that this is written, he had reached the age of 94, and was still cheerful and enthusiastic about life.