William Ingham Papers

William Herbert Ingham, a distinguished member of the James Madison University Physics faculty for over three decades, was born November 29, 1947 in Rochester, New York. He received his S.B. (Scientiae Baccalaureus) in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1968 and went on to complete his M.S. in astronomy from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1969. Ingham returned to MIT and received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1976. Dr. Ingham began teaching at JMU in September 1976 and remained a member of the Physics faculty until his retirement in July 2010.

During his tenure at JMU, Dr. Ingham served as head of the Physics Department from 1986 to 1989 and also served in an acting role as Associate Dean/Acting Dean, Letters and Sciences (1989-1990) and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (1990-1991). Dr. Ingham’s accomplishments related to furthering the science curriculum are numerous. He taught over thirty discrete Physics courses as well as courses in many other disciplines such as chemistry and math and championed a new computational science concentration. He also developed and taught four offerings of an introductory fluid mechanics course beginning the 1980-1980 academic year. In partnership with the History Department, Dr. Ingham was instrumental in creating the history of science curriculum first offered in the 1992-1993 academic year. Related material is located in the Teaching & Coursework series of this collection.

Dr. Ingham advocated for the Physics Department and the liberal studies program during university restructuring in the 1990s. He spoke out against Dr. Carrier and many others in the university administration for decisions made regarding academic restructuring and other tangentially related incidents. On the morning of Friday, January 13, 1995, Dr. Bethany Oberst, vice president for academic affairs announced restructuring plans which included moving math and sciences out of the College of Letters and Sciences and into the College of Integrated Science and Technology (CISAT) and merging the remainder of College of Letters and Sciences programs with the College of Communication and the Arts. Especially shocking to the university community and to Dr. Ingham and his colleagues was the announcement that Physics would be eliminated as a major. Throughout his papers, Dr. Ingham refers to the ensuing months and years at JMU, which included the aforementioned academic restructuring, and also a 1996 Honor Code “fiasco” during which administration quietly overturned an Honor Council decision, opposition by faculty and students to proposed general education curriculum, and quashed subpoenas originally served to Dr. Carrier and civic leader, Zane Showker, as part of the 1997 Jamie Raymond murder trial, as “the troubles.” Similar intentionally nebulous language describing these years can be found throughout materials in Series 7 through Series 12. These occurrences, particularly the plans for university restructuring, created conflict between the administration and faculty and resulted in the group, Faculty for Responsible Change (FRC), of which Dr. Ingham was a founding member. The Physics Department ultimately was kept intact and continues to be a thriving department and major at JMU.

Dr. Ingham was also an influential and involved faculty member beyond the Physics Department and beyond JMU. He served on the Faculty Handbook Task Force which was charged with editing the faculty handbook. This included editing and revising the expectations, rights and responsibilities of the faculty, and outlining the relationship between faculty members and the university. He also served on the Faculty Senate. Dr. Ingham was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award for the College of Sciences and Mathematics for academic year 2002/2003. Recommended by the Council for International Exchange of Students (CIES) for a Lecturing/Research award under the 2004-2005 J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program. He was awarded a grant and subsequently spent the fall semester 2004 teaching Physics and conducting research at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada as a faculty-in-residence.

Dr. Ingham was professionally active throughout his career, serving as a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), particularly the Chesapeake Section (CSAAPT), and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. He was a grader for Advanced Placement (AP) Physics examinations for several years. Between 1994 and 2000, Dr. Ingham served on the AP Physics Development Committee, a six-member national committee that writes the AP Physics examinations; he chaired the committee from 1997 to 2000.

Since retirement in 2010, Dr. Ingham has remained active in the JMU community as a member of the Faculty Emeriti Association and continues to lecture on topics relating to black holes and gravitational waves.