John Essick completed a 29-year career at Reed College in Portland, OR,
in May 2022 when heretired as the David W. Brauer Professor of Physics. After Cal, John earned
his PhD from theUniversity 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.
August 3, 2022
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