After battling bipolar disorder and depression for most of his life, Fred W. Lott III died in his sleep, from apparent heart failure, on Sept. 12, 1995. Fred was a “whiz kid,” a precocious scholar and a talented physicist whose promising research and academic career was stunted by illness.
Fred entered Carleton early, following his junior year in high school in Cedar Falls, IA. When he graduated in 1964, he moved to Berkeley and earned an M.S. in physics from the University of California in 1966. But his scholarship was interrupted periodically by the need to deal with health problems.
He received electroshock treatment, and took leave for months at a time to recover. It required 12 more years before he received his Ph.D. from Berkeley, and his slow progress adversely affected his career advancement.
Fred’s struggles with mental health issues were well known to sympathetic colleagues and friends. He belonged to the American Scientific Affiliation, an organization devoted to science and Christianity; one personal item from the ASA journal in early 1979 noted with obvious affection: “Fred W. Lott III is still living in Berkeley after receiving his Ph.D. in elementary particle physics in June 1978. Fred has spent years vanquishing recalcitrant cyclotrons, like Don Quixote’s windmills, while the Berkeley riots came and went. His thesis was on Pi Scattering by Pole Extrapolation Method (Unless that’s ‘Bipole’ in the middle–Ed.)”
Fred did groundbreaking research at the Livermore Radiation Laboratory near Berkeley. He also was a research assistant at Fermilab, in Batavia, IL and a guest scientist at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.
After receiving his doctorate, Fred was appointed an assistant physics professor at Wilkes College in Pennsylvania. There he married Marilyn Spear of Wilkes-Barre, PA, but the union later ended in divorce. Fred also taught as an assistant professor at Weber State University in Utah and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
In 1990, he accepted an assistant professor position in the physics department at Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, where he remained until his death at age 52.
Following a longtime interest in Christianity and religion, Fred became a devout Mennonite later in life. He was capable of amazing feats. “At one point, he taught himself enough Russian so he could read the Bible in that language,” recalls his sister, Diana Anderson. “He had a brilliant mind.”
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Following graduation from Carleton, Fred received a master’s and then a doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. A career in teaching followed. Fred was an assistant professor of physics at Wilkes College in Pennsylvania, Weber State College in Utah, and Florida A & M University in Tallahassee. In 1990 Fred joined Jackson State University in Mississippi as an assistant professor and taught there until his death in 1995. In addition to his teaching career, Fred was a research assistant at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois and a guest scientist at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.
After battling bipolar disorder and depression for most of his life, Fred W. Lott III died in his sleep, from apparent heart failure, on Sept. 12, 1995. Fred was a “whiz kid,” a precocious scholar and a talented physicist whose promising research and academic career was stunted by illness. Fred entered Carleton early, following his junior year in high school in Cedar Falls, IA. When he graduated in 1964, he moved to Berkeley and earned an M.S. in physics from the University of California in 1966. But his scholarship was interrupted periodically by the need to deal with health problems. He received electroshock treatment, and took leave for months at a time to recover. It required 12 more years before he received his Ph.D. from Berkeley, and his slow progress adversely affected his career advancement. Fred’s struggles with mental health issues were well known to sympathetic colleagues and friends. He belonged to the American Scientific Affiliation, an organization devoted to science and Christianity; one personal item from the ASA journal in early 1979 noted with obvious affection: “Fred W. Lott III is still living in Berkeley after receiving his Ph.D. in elementary particle physics in June 1978. Fred has spent years vanquishing recalcitrant cyclotrons, like Don Quixote’s windmills, while the Berkeley riots came and went. His thesis was on Pi Scattering by Pole Extrapolation Method (Unless that's ‘Bipole’ in the middle--Ed.)” Fred did groundbreaking research at the Livermore Radiation Laboratory near Berkeley. He also was a research assistant at Fermilab, in Batavia, IL and a guest scientist at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. After receiving his doctorate, Fred was appointed an assistant physics professor at Wilkes College in Pennsylvania. There he married Marilyn Spear of Wilkes-Barre, PA, but the union later ended in divorce. Fred also taught as an assistant professor at Weber State University in Utah and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. In 1990, he accepted an assistant professor position in the physics department at Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, where he remained until his death at age 52. Following a longtime interest in Christianity and religion, Fred became a devout Mennonite later in life. He was capable of amazing feats. “At one point, he taught himself enough Russian so he could read the Bible in that language,” recalls his sister, Diana Anderson. “He had a brilliant mind.”