Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of The Honors College First Graduating Class – George Edward “Ed” Bixby
By Gary Hyatt, WSU Honors College, gary.hyatt1@wsu.edu
Name: George Edward “Ed” Bixby
Hometown: Chelan, WA
Main Occupation:Nuclear Physicist and Data Analyst
Where you live now: In the foothills above Boulder, CO
History
Ed Bixby grew up on the shores of Lake Chelan in Central Washington. For several summers, Ed worked at the local Boy Scout Camp on the waterfront. His father owned a local grocery store, where Ed worked as a clerk when needed. Despite having only an eighth-grade education, Ed’s father was considered one of the smartest people Ed had ever known. Ed’s mother and her family (the Pells) were quite educated and had a long history of attending Washington State College (WSC). With encouragement from his math teacher, “Ma” Reinier, and members of his family, Ed became a “Coug” and joined the Honors Program at Washington State University (WSU).
As early as HS, Ed decided to study physics because he wanted to understand how things worked. Due to his bad memory, he felt that physics would allow him to figure things out if he couldn’t remember them. As a requirement at the time, he was part of the Air Force ROTC during his first two years and even planned to join the service until a scheduling conflict led him in another direction. Always open to advice about meeting girls, one of his roommates suggested that Ed enroll in a social dance class. Despite his demanding physics course load, Ed knew he needed help with his social skills. So, when Ed’s advisor raised an eyebrow at this course selection, he remained determined, knowing the social dance class would provide a better social educational opportunity than any physics class he would have taken.
After WSU, Ed received a research assistantship from the physics department at the University of Colorado. While working on his Masters, Ed met the love of his life, Norma Layher Bixby, at an ice-skating lake in the Rockies. Knowing that Norma was not moving from her Colorado home, Ed decided to stay local and took a position at DOE’s Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant where he spent the rest of his career working at a place where he literally was not allowed to bring his work home with him. His laptop was the size of a car, the uranium was a little tricky to handle, and Norma was spared all of Ed’s work stories because of the Cold War and security clearance—he could not say a word. During his time at Rocky Flats, Ed transitioned from the nuclear physics side into data analysis. He learned early computer programming languages such as Hewlett Packard Language and Fortran, working with statisticians to solve problems using the data he gathered. He enjoyed this aspect because he could take his file cabinet-sized computer around to different departments, working on solutions to various problems. “No one day was the same,” which allowed him to be content going to work every day. He was also proud of serving on a committee that helped protect the safety of the US nuclear arsenal during a very challenging time.
After retirement, Ed and Norma traveled, danced (Square and Round), and fixed up their rental properties in their spare time. Ed greatly valued his Honors experience, feeling it gave him a sense of accomplishment and the confidence to compete with anyone. He appreciated the diverse classes provided by the Honors Program, which broadened his understanding of the world. Learning German was a significant plus for Ed, as he married into a German family and became the main communicator between the English-only and German-only speaking members. Imagine that… this introverted boy from Chelan being the most talked-to person at his last family reunion in Germany. Yes, the Social Dance class was a good choice.
We appreciate Ed sharing his story with us.
1. Why did you choose to enroll in The Honors Program at WSU?
My high school math teacher, “Ma” Reinier, was a significant influence on me. She taught both my mother and me, making me part of her third generation of students. My mother and several of her family members attended WSC where my mother earned a BS in Mathematics. Inspired by their experiences and wanting to follow in their footsteps, I decided to pursue my education at WSU as well. Additionally, coming from a small town, I felt that WSU’s environment would suit me well. It was Ma Reinier who suggested I try out for the honors program, and I took her advice.
2. What were your initial impressions of The Honors College when you first started?
I was impressed with Dr. Bhatia and how welcome everyone made me feel. Although I was a bit apprehensive about being able to compete with such talented students, meeting and speaking with Dr. Bhatia was a very rewarding experience. He was an amazing person, and his encouragement helped me feel more confident and excited about being part of The Honors College.
3).Can you describe a memorable class or project from your time in The Honors Program?
One memorable class was an Honors course in Comparative Religion. Although I’m not particularly religious, I found this class fascinating. I learned that conflicts over national borders and disputes between organized religions are the two leading causes of wars. For one of the assignments, we had to write a paper on a topic related to religion. I chose to write about Japan’s Geisha girls, who were the only educated women in medieval Japan. I was initially hesitant about tackling such a risqué subject, but I wanted to understand why a country would neglect the intelligence of half its population. My paper was well-received, and it sparked my ongoing curiosity about gender discrimination, including in my own country.
4. Who were some of the most influential professors or mentors during your time at WSU?
Dr. Paul Bender was a particularly influential professor for me. He taught a senior laboratory class and was also an amateur geologist during the summers. Dr. Bender was experimenting with a new technology called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) to differentiate overlapping lava flows. While he didn’t succeed in this specific application, the technique itself proved successful and eventually evolved into what we know today as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Thankfully, the term “Nuclear” was dropped, which helped in its acceptance in the medical field.
5. How do you think your experience in The Honors College shaped your personal and professional development?
After graduating college, I found a job working at the local DOE Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. After completing a 7-year research project I took the digital data acquisition system I had used to branch out into direct support of the plant’s operations. I took that system all over the plant site to provide data acquisition and computer assisted analysis to any group who asked. Basically, I became a “scientist jack-of-all-trades”. I give credit to the honors society for the broader interest in other problems and programs besides my own major. If there was a problem or question to be investigated and a committee was formed, I would likely be on that committee. I ended up being given three very prestigious awards for my work.
6. Can you share a significant personal achievement or milestone that you attribute to your education at The Honors Program?
That same Dr. Paul Bender recommended that I continue my physics education by attending graduate school at the University of Colorado in Boulder. I believe Honors College credentials helped me win a research assistant position at the university’s cyclotron, complete with in-state tuition and a $300/month salary.
7. Can you describe the sense of community within The Honors Program during your time there?
I’m not a very socially outgoing type so didn’t socially interact much with others in the college outside of classes but did find it very stimulating to study with some very smart fellow students. That really brought home to me and reinforced how important a top-notch education really is.
8. Looking back, how do you feel The Honors Program prepared you for the real world.
Seeing the world from a variety of viewpoints helped me become interested in many subjects and world events. As the T shirt my crazy brother gave me says, I learned to “think outside the quadrilateral parallelogram”. That ability makes me a better citizen, I think. In the words of JFK, I liked the challenges of doing “hard things”. So, I continued my education in Physics. Theoretical Physics was hard for me. Those darn Maxwell’s Equations of electricity and magnetism ate my lunch. But in the face of adversity, I did manage to earn an MS in Nuclear Physics, however.
9. What advice would you give to current students at The Honors College?
Just go for it and really take advantage of this golden opportunity. It will be life changing. Become active in our country’s politics; when you become eligible to vote, learn about the issues and candidates and always vote and take action in any policies or committees that interest you.
10. Do you have any humorous or particularly memorable stories from your time in The Honors Program?
Who says small schools can’t graduate great students? There was a required math entrance exam which I took. I got a notice from one of the professors advising me to take a more advanced test, so I did. I was called back again and advised to skip the entering math class and take a much more advanced class. So, I took the advanced class which was mostly review for me. Soon I got a message from a woman I didn’t know who asked me to her sorority sock hop. I went and she told me no one had ever beaten her in a math exam and she just had to meet me. My math skills are far above my social skills, and I never saw her again.
Another fun time was in my junior year when class conflicts prevented me from taking Airforce drill exercises, so I was made assistant to the wing inspector. His job, among others, was to critique other officers for their notes tacked to a public cork board. He criticized them for typos, smudges, erasures etc. My job was to type up his reports which would also be posted on that board. So of course, I couldn’t make any of those mistakes! Can you imagine how long it took me to type that first two-page report with no back or delete keys and no spell check? I think it was four hours.
I was required to take a foreign language class and chose German. On the first day of class, we were waiting for the professor to show up and realized some of us were there for German and others for French and we wondered how that was going to work out. Just then a svelte lady walked in who said “Guten Tag” and half the class got up and left! I remember the shocked look on her face until we told her what had happened. I even learned some German!
11. Was there a defining moment during your time at WSU that you often look back on?
At the time all incoming freshman males had to take two years of ROTC and I chose the Air Force. After my HS experience of being in a marching band I had no trouble with the drill exercises and the classes were easy. I knew I wanted to go on to graduate school so to save my parents the cost, I signed a contract for the entire four years since the AF would be paying for it. The wing commander told me, however, that if I wanted out, he wouldn’t object. Well, my senior year I had a conflict between a required physics class and a required AF class. So, in spite of the award granted me in my sophomore year I backed out of the contract so I could graduate. If I had stayed in the AF my later life would have been very different, including never meeting my very smart and loving wife of 54 years, now deceased.
12. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience in The Honors program or your life since then?
At 81 years of age, I have no regrets about the life I have lived; just one adventure after the other, it seems, including my Honors education. My wife and I did almost everything: square dancing, 4 wheeling in our old International Scout, primitive camping in our 9X9 wall tent (usually at about 11,000 feet elevation), ice skating, cat shows, management of our own two small apartment buildings, and living in our mountain home here in the foothills above Boulder, CO.