G. Samuel Hurst -- the 'Tom Edison' of ORNL

This past summer the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and our community, lost one of its most illustrious members. Sam Hurst came to Oak Ridge from Bell County in his home state of Kentucky in 1948. There are abundant stories about Sam as a youngster in Bell County, Ky., when his innate curiosity about how things worked were a prelude to a most remarkable career in science. Coming from a family with only modest income, he was eligible to attend Berea College in Berea, Ky. Berea is a small "self-help" educational institution in which each student is required to have a regular campus job to help with expenses. Sam was so impressed with Berea that he wanted his son to attend, but because of the family income he was ineligible. In later years, Sam told me that he would have paid a goodly sum "under the table" to get him into Berea. At age 15, Sam entered Berea and after graduating with a degree in physics he attended the University of Kentucky, where he earned his master's degree before joining the staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1948. While working, he attended classes at the University of Tennessee and earned his doctorate degree in physics in 1959.

Sam's productivity was quickly recognized and he became the section head of the Radiation Physics Section of the Health Physics Division at ORNL. It was a relatively small group of less than 20 scientists, mostly physicists, but under Sam's leadership the Section attracted an unusually high number of superior scientists, three of whom were later named Corporate Fellows and two of whom were named senior Corporate Fellows. In 1979, Sam was named as one of the first three corporate Fellows at the laboratory. I checked with the patent group at ORNL and they were able to find 34 patents that had been issued to Sam, making him one of the most -- if not the most -- prolific inventor in the history of ORNL. The records office was able to find 183 peer-reviewed papers published by Sam in the open literature, but everyone admits there were many more that were not found in the available records. One of the section members, Dr. Robert Birkhoff, once mentioned that the scientific publication rate from Sam's section exceeded that of the entire Physics Division at the lab.

A listing of the honors and awards that Sam had received over the years would take more space than is available, but among them are, in addition to Corporate Fellow, an Honorary D.Sc. Degree from Berea College, election to the University of Kentucky Alumni Association Hall of Distinguished Alumni, the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Tennessee Physics Department, and the prestigious appointment as a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

When I was struggling through physics graduate school I knew that the top students would become theoreticians and the rest of us, with lesser "brain power," would become experimentalists. Sam was the exception, he was both and excelled in both areas. If anyone was entitled to be egocentric it was certainly Sam, but there was never a shred of that characteristic. He was a most modest individual and often gave credit to others for ideas which he himself had initiated.

Among his numerous patents was the electronic device known as the Elograph, which enabled scientists or engineers to easily extract the coordinates from graphs and maps. In 1971, Sam started Elographics, a small company on the west end of Oak Ridge Turnpike that produced and marketed the ingenious device. Sam continued to improve the Elograph and his company continued to grow. Eventually Sam came up with the idea for a transparent screen and this led directly to the ubiquitous touchscreen, which made its first appearance at the World's Fair in Knoxville in 1982, and which is now found throughout the world. In 1986 the company was bought by the Raychem Corp., and its name changed to Elo Touch Systems, which today is the world's largest producer of touch screen products. The name Elo will be found throughout industry, banks, stores, ATM machines, and visitor centers throughout the world.

And Sam started this right here in Oak Ridge.

In addition to his warm personality and affable manner, Sam also had a sense of humor. When I was in graduate school at the University of Tennessee, Professor Richard Present was the nemesis of all graduate students and one had to have his approval for any advancement. One day at a Physics Department seminar, Sam happened to be seated next to Dr. Present when, for some reason, my name came up and Sam referred to me by my nickname "Doc." With somewhat of a frown Dr. Present said "Doc -- why do you call him Doc?" Sam merely responded with "In anticipation." When Sam later related this to me I felt like I had been given the "Kiss of Death," but perhaps the high regard which Dr. Present had for Sam may actually have helped turn the tide in Dr. Present's mind. Thanks, Sam!

Truly, with Sam's passing, the laboratory, our community, and indeed, our country and the world, lost a real genius. But our loss is heaven's gain as I feel that Sam is busy making improvements there just as he did while he was on this Earth.

Lewis "Doc" Emerson is a longtime Oak Ridge resident.