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CRIMSON SHIELD
THE ONLINE MAGAZINE OF BROTHER MARTIN HIGH SCHOOL |
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| December 2010 |
‹‹ Front page Next article››
Dr. Ray Fricken
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Dr. Phil may cure your emotional distresses, but at Brother Martin Dr. Ray helps students and teachers solve math and science problems.
- Ray Fricken (SA '55) earned a B.S. at Loyola before going to LSU, where he earned a Ph.D. in Elementary Particle Physics thanks in part to a National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellowship.
- He joined a research group at LSU that was part of a national consortium of eight universities with headquarters at the University of Chicago, where Enrico Fermi built the first atomic pile in 1942, pioneering work that led to the first atomic bomb three years later.
- With a military obligation he still had to fulfill because of his ROTC commitment at Loyola, Ray attended officers training for eight weeks before being assigned to work at the Research Division of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Maryland. He would spend 30 years at the AEC and its successor, the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA).
Ray participated in some of the most important scientific research of the 20th century.
- One of his first assignments put him on the site selection committee for the National Accelerator Laboratory (now known as Fermilab), which was built in Batavia IL. Two major components of the Standard Model of Fundamental Particles and Forces have been discovered at Fermilab: the bottom quark (1977) and the top quark (1995). In 2000, Fermilab experimenters announced the first direct observation of the tau neutrino, the last fundamental particle to be observed.
- Another project he worked on was an addition to the linear accelerator at Stanford University.
- The biggest project, and the one he is most proud of, was the construction of a Superconducting Super Collider in Texas. If completed, the collider would have been the largest and most energetic in the world. However, Congress, looking to trim the Federal budget, cancelled the project in 1993 after $2.5 billion had been spent.
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The demise of the Super Collider project pushed Ray into retirement.
- He had already become disenchanted when the AEC was subsumed into the ERDA.
- Originally, scientists ran AEC. But that changed with ERDA. "Political appointments drifted lower in the organization," he says. "I didn't like it. I had several opportunities to move into senior executive positions, but I didn't want to deal with the politics."
- Energized by new challenges, Ray joined the Super Collider team fully aware of the pitfalls involved. Near the end, he was the only person able to talk to all the warring factions.
- After the dissolution of the Texas project, Ray retired in 1993.
He had always planned to return to New Orleans.
- He moved back to his hometown after his mother suffered a stroke.
- Enjoying a handsome retirement income from the Federal government, he wanted to stay active. "I was looking for something productive, but I wasn't interested in full-time employment."
- Ray had worked with youth for 15 years in Maryland when he coached 11-12 year olds in football and baseball.
- Recalling his education by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart at St. Aloysius, Ray became a volunteer in the Instructional Lab at Brother Martin in the fall of 1993, tutoring students in math and science.
- When his high school classmate, Brother Maurus Bordelon ('55), initiated the Advanced Placement (AP) Physics course, Ray agreed to help him. Later, he assisted Dr. Nancy Autin and then Barbara Stott in teaching Calculus AP. Since Katrina, Ray has worked with Mary Picou on Physics AP.
- "I've been able to do what I enjoy, teaching physics and math, without being burdened with all the nuisances that go along with being a teacher. I'm a free agent."
- The Brother Martin Board of Directors awarded Ray the Founders Medal in 2001 in recognition of his service to the school.
Scores of Crusader graduates are grateful that Ray chose to contribute his immense talents to their education.
Dr. Ray Fricken tutoring a student in 1997-98
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