| DIXON, James William: 12 Jul 1913 - 23 Feb 2005 Source: online newspaper archive Waco Tribune-Herald (TX) - March 1, 2005 Deceased Name: James William Dixon Jr. / Darden Powers: Baylor remembers 2 former Baylor department chairs The Baylor University community is mourning the loss of two former department chairs who recently died. Funeral services for James William Dixon Jr., former geology professor and chair of the geology department, were held Monday. Dixon died Wednesday. He was 91. Darden Powers, a physics professor and former chair of the physics department, died Thursday. He was 72. Funeral services were held Saturday. Dixon retired as chair of the geology department in 1977. He received his bachelor's and masters degree's from Baylor and returned to teach for 36 years. Powers came to Baylor as a professor in 1961. He was instrumental in developing Baylor as a research facility and developing the physics Ph.D. program. He served as the director of graduate studies from 1976 to 1993. "He was probably the most important person in establishing that," said physics professor Walter Wilcox, who had known Powers 19 years. Powers was the chair of the physics department from 1993 to 2003. He directed the Van der Graaf laboratory at the school, where he studied low-energy physics, Wilcox said. Physics professor Greg Benesh said Powers was "one of the pillars of the department." Wilcox described Powers as a "tremendously hard worker," who taught classes until last semester, when he took a medical leave of absence. "He did as much as he could and he worked until the very end," Wilcox said. [email protected] 757-5751 |
