Ray F. Tipsword Graduate Scholarship

Professor Ray Fenton Tipsword (Sept. 9, 1931 - Dec. 4, 2009) grew up on a Southern Illinois farm and went to college at East Illinois State getting his B.S. in 1953, and went on to Southern Illinois to earn his M.S. in 1957. He majored in Physics. On active duty, after graduation, he served with the U.S. Army in the occupation of Korea. After his military service obligation was completed he briefly taught Physics at the University of Missouri at Rolla. Ray and his family then moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he began work in magnetic resonance under Professor Moulton at the University of Alabama. In 1963 he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Alabama and looked for a faculty position to teach Physics.

Ray accepted the offer of an Assistant Professorship here in the Physics Department at Virginia Tech in 1964 and remained on the faculty until 1991. He was a very dedicated and popular teacher and was honored with the Certificate for Excellence in Teaching for three consecutive years (1973-1976). In 1986 he was nominated (by students, alumni, and faculty within the College of Arts and Sciences) for and received the William E. Wine award. This award recognizes dedication and excellence in teaching.

He developed a successful research program in quadrupole magnetic resonance and was advisor to eight graduate students who successfully completed their Ph.D.'s. From 1979-80 he served as acting department head, and for most of his nearly three decades of tenure with the department he chaired the shop committee and had a major influence on the development of our Machine and Electronics shops.

In 1991, on the eve of Professor Tipsword's Retirement from the Department of Physics, the Tipsword family decided to set up a graduate scholarship in honor of his lifelong efforts and to recognize graduate students who excel and are promising future physicists.