John McCallum

John McCallum was born the final day of 1920. His parents, John and Annie McCallum immigrated from Scotland and became American citizens in 1915, where they pastored small town American Baptist Churches. Our dad was born into a parish home in Gas City, Indiana. Earned BS Kalamazoo College in 1942 (the year "Goodby Dear, I'll be Back in a Year" was the favorite song), and MS from Michigan State in chemistry in 1944 where he worked on absorptive material used in the Manhattan Project, the first nuclear fission experiment. Immediately after graduation he enlisted in the Navy and received his commission as Ensign and then Captain of Yard Mine Sweeper-200, serving in the Inland Seas of Japan. After decommission, he returned to Michigan State University to complete a PhD in physical chemistry under the direction of Dr. Yewing, with a dissertation on "Oxidation reduction potential of ceric-cerium couple." He met Martha Hoyt who was working as a bacteriologist in Lansing, at the MI State Test Station, and the two were married October 10, 1947. He worked as a chemist at Kodak Laboratories from '48-'52 and then at Battelle Memorial Institute in Department of Electrochemistry, from 1952 - 1972. He had 20 patents to his name. One workday during lunch break, he located two acres on a newly subdivided farm in suburban Worthington, where he subsequently built a house custom designed John Holroyd, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. In that home he and his wife raised four boys, Bruce, Dennis, Keith and Scot, and in it he died on December 21, ten days short of his 98th birthday. He was a lifelong member of the American Baptist church, and worshipped at North Baptist Church. He was member of the American Chemical Society and editor of Chemical Abstracts. He taught us to bee keeping and ship navigation on the Chris Craft Cabin Cruiser he bought. He lived and worked in a period of American history where families took 4-week vacations. He took us on many educational world vacations. But our favorite times were spent in a rental cabin on Lake Michigan. Our Dad spent most of his career thinking about the relationship between Christian faith and science. The result of his life work is available online at the Apple Book store under the title Living Foundations for Work and Growth (ISBN 9781532379604). Dad was predeceased by son Scot in 2003 and wife Martha in 2013. Survived by sons Bruce, Dennis and Keith, ten grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.