John Essick ’76

John Essick completed a 29-year career at Reed College in Portland, OR, in May 2022 when he retired as the David W. Brauer Professor of Physics. After Cal, John earned his PhD from the University of Oregon. He taught for more than 40 years, including four at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, but could not match his father’s feat: John Essick Sr. (’39), was a physics teacher at Los Angeles High School for 44 years, retiring in 1991 at age 74. In his teaching, John Jr. used many of the timeless physics examples his father used from the textbook “Modern College Physics,” by Cal Professor Harvey E. White. John and his wife, Katie, have three children and a grandson, and live in Portland.