Sources |
- [S142] Newspaper Article, The Oak Ridger, 26 Oct 2001.
William S. ArnoldRetired biophysicist
William A. Arnold, 96, of Oak Ridge, died Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 at Briarcliff Health Care Center.
Born Dec. 6, 1904, in Douglas, Wyo., he was the son of William A. and Nellie O'Brien Arnold. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University in 1935.
Mr. Arnold was a retired biophysicist. He worked in the Biology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was among the division's most highly respected staff members, a group that included 70 scientists and technicians by 1947. He was one of those hired to staff the initial research units in biochemistry, cytogenetics, physiology and radiology and was considered a pioneer in ORNL's former Biology Division.
According to information from ORNL, Mr. Arnold's discoveries of the electronic nature of energy transfer in photosynthesis was among the division's early scientific accomplishments.
Before coming to Oak Ridge, he was a young researcher at the Neils Bohr Institute in Denmark in 1939 at the time of the historic successful demonstration of the nuclear reaction by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman. According to information from former ORNL director Alvin Weinberg and reported by Oak Ridger founding editor Richard Smyser, Mr. Arnold was responsible for use of the word "fission" to describe what happens in a nuclear reaction.
He was one of the few Oak Ridge members of the National Academy of Sciences. Mr. Arnold retired from ORNL in 1969.
His wife, Jean Thompkins Arnold, died Nov. 17, 1997. They had been married for 68 years at the time of her death.
Mr. Arnold is survived by two daughters, Helen Holbrook Arnold Herron and her husband, David K. Herron, of Indianapolis, Ind., and Elizabeth Irving Arnold of Seguin, Texas; a sister, Dorothy Habib of Seagrove Beach, Fla.; five grandchildren, Jennifer Ogle and her husband, Kent, of Knoxville, Cindy Choules of Seguin, Texas, Pamela Choules of Los Angeles, Calif., Mike Herron of Indianapolis, and Katie Herron and her husband, Rick Foley, of Bloomington, Ind.; and two great-grandchildren, Logan Ogle of Knoxville and Ben Foley of Bloomington.
In addition to his wife and his parents, Mr. Arnold was preceded in death by two brothers, James M. Arnold and Joseph H. Arnold.
In keeping with Mr. Arnold's wishes, the body was cremated and the ashes will be buried next to the remains of his wife at Oak Ridge Memorial Park.
William S. Arnold obituary
- [S84] E-Mail, Jennifer Choules Ogle [jenn@ogle.org], 4 May 2009.
|