Curtis Raymond Haupt

Dr. Curtis Haupt was a physicist from San Diego, California with seminal contributions in optics, including developing an early approach to three-dimensional motion picture production, as well as serving as a long-time faculty member with Pomona College and MIT from the 1920's-1940's. He also researched ionization potentials by electron impact, photosynthesis, electronics, and design of radar equipment. His son Bruce (b. 1944 Boston, MA) and his wife Robin have been involved a number of years with the TW exclusives in San Diego and Cottonwood, AZ.

Born in 1903 in Williamsport, Warren, Indiana Dr. Haupt spent a majority of his life in San Diego including in his later years in La Mesa, where he died in 1993. He was a son of Elmer Franklin Haupt (b. 1874 Warren Co., IN - d. 1938 Colorado Springs, El Paso, CO) & Magnolia "Maggie" Kyle Haupt (b. 1874 Hawkins Co., TN - d. 1954 Co. Springs, CO).

Marriage

In 1933, he married Helen Nelson (b. 1910 Scotts Bluff / Brimson, NE - d. 2004 Fridley, Minneapolis, Anoka, MN) in Spearfish, Lawrence, South Dakota. Helen was a daughter of John Christian Nelson (b. 1876 Harlan, Shelby, IA - d. 1968 La Mesa, CA) & Georgia Nena Hauge Nelson (b. 1883 Geneva, MN - d. 1939 Spearfish, SD).

John Nelson

John graduated from high school in Harlan, and earned a civil engineering degree in 1904 from Iowa State College in Ames. In 1908, he was employed as a civil engineer in charge of construction on the early day North West Railway from Pierre to Rapid City in 1908. From 1920 thru 1930, the Nelson family resided in Philip, Haakon, SD. John was employed as vice-president of a local bank in 1920, and a self-employed band director in 1930. He was also vice-president of the First National Bank in Spearfish, SD until 1939. He served as an elder of the Presbyterian church in Philip, and on the board of trustees for the First Congregational Church in Spearfield.

John's parents were Lars Nielsen (b. 1843 Hune Kjær, Denmark - d. 1895 Harlan, IA) & Anna Jensen Nielsen (b. 1851 Aarthus, Midtjylland, Denmark; emig. 1871; m. 1873 Pottawattamie, IA; d. 1913 Harlan, IA).

Georgia Nelson

Georgia was born into "a log chapel on the shores of Lake Geneva, near Geneva, Minn.", according to her obit in Rapid City Journal.

Education

• Colorado Springs High School grad. 1921. He was awarded a 4-yr scholarship to Colorado College by a Co. Springs Kiwanis Club when he was a senior in high school as "the most proficient student of physics in a class of 192" (as per a local newspaper in 1921).
• Colorado College (Co. Springs, CO), he earned his A.B. in Physics in 1926.
• University of California 1926-1930, earning his M.A. in 1928, then Ph.D. in 1930. His Ph. D. was on ionization phenomena in mercury vapor, of which the American Physical Society published an article of his in 1931, "The Probability Law Governing Ionization by Electron Impact in Mercury Vapor".

Career

• Teaching fellow in physics @ U. of Calif. 1926-1930.
• In the summers, he was a research associate 1925-1929 @ Carnegie Institution.
• Physics professor @ Pomona College +1925-1942.
• Staff member then group leader in the radiation lab at MIT 1942-1946
• U.S. Navy electronics lab in San Diego, a physicist with the office of Science Research & Development 1946-1950+, including section head of training equipment 1946-1947, head of the Radio-Radar branch 1947-1949+.

Inventions

In 1933, the Los Angeles Times, as well as International Photographer, had an article by Dr. Haupt about a technique he had developed that would provide stereoscopic (3D) movies utilizing an oscillating device on a tripod. The article was called, "A New Method Of Adding Depth To Motion Pictures".

Notable Colleagues

• Dr. Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958) as he was developing the cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator, which is still used today to produce particle beams for nuclear medicinal diagnostics, and particle therapy used in cancer treatment, which won him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939, as per Wikipedia.
• Dr. Albert Beaumont Wood (1890-1964) who was "one of the first two scientists to receive an official appointment with the Admiralty under the newly formed Board of Invention and Research" at what was later known as the Royal Navy Scientific Service, where he began pioneering research into underwater acoustics, of which came "Text Book of Sound", described as a classic work on the subject, according to The Naval Science of Albert Beaumont Wood, O.B.E., D.Sc.. Dr. Haupt was one of several contributors invited to submit an article to a memorial tribute for Dr. Wood.

Sources

• Ancestry.com
• "American Men of Science: Biographical Directory", ed. by Jaques Cattell. 8th ed., 1949.