John Brackett Hersey papers

John Brackett Hersey (1913-1992) was born in Wolfsboro, New Hampshire. After graduating from Princeton University with an A.B. in 1934 and an M.A. in 1935, Hersey took a PhD in physics with a minor in geology from Lehigh University in 1943. His was the first doctoral degree in physics given by the department and it was here that Hersey came under the influence of Maurice “Doc” Ewing.

Employment and military service prior to his years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) included work for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Phillips Petroleum, a teaching assignment in Lehigh’s Geology Department, and a tour with the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory. In 1944, he was commissioned in the U.S. Naval Reserve and retired two years later as a lieutenant.

Before and after World War II, Professor Ewing, Hersey and other students from Lehigh used Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ships in their research. This exposure lured Hersey to Woods Hole in 1946 and he remained with the Institution for more than 20 years. He started as a Research Associate and rapidly progressed to Senior Scientist. In 1963, Hersey was made the first Chairman of the Geology and Geophysics Department, a position he formally held until 1968. Hersey took a leave of absence in 1966 to work for the Office of Naval Research principally as Deputy Assistant Oceanographer and Special Assistant to the Assistant of the Navy for Research and Development. He resigned from WHOI in 1968. Hersey’s Civil Service retirement in 1979 was followed by 11 years with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as Senior Staff Scientist. Honors during his military and civilian career included an Individual Citation Medal and Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the U.S. Navy and the Fleming Medal given by the American Institute of Geonomy and Natural Resources.

Hersey’s principal scientific interests were in solid earth geophysics, marine seismology and geology, underwater acoustics, and sound scattering by marine animals. While he received patents for methods of study and applications in marine seismology and underwater acoustics, his best-known patent was for the Continuous Seismic Profiler, which was used for continuous measurement of layered sediment structures beneath the ocean floor. Hersey authored or co-authored over 50 scientific journal articles and has an equal number of unpublished manuscripts on subjects of interest to the U.S. Navy. He also contributed approximately 10 review chapters in scientific books on underwater acoustics, marine geophysics, marine animal acoustics and oceanographic instrumentation. Other projects Hersey was involved in include Projects Nobska, Medea, and Atlantis; and with Allyn Vine on SOSUS.

Hersey was a Fellow in the Acoustical Society of America, Geological Society of America and the Royal Astronomical Society. His membership in scientific societies included American Geophysical Union, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Seismological Society of America. While at WHOI Hersey served on a number of committees for the Navy, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, and others.