John Alexander McGill

John Alexander McGill passed away in the early hours of August 30, 2010, his 63rd birthday. He was predeceased by his mother, Virginia McLaury McGill, in 1988. John is survived by his wife, Patricia, of Austin and Santa Fe; his stepsons Tim and Mark Tompkins, Mark’s wife, Lisa and 2 ½ grandchildren, all of North Carolina; his father Charlie and stepmother Joy of Dallas; siblings Bob McGill and wife Nancy of League City, Texas; Jim McGill and wife Beth of Houston; Betsy Stephenson and husband John of Round Mountain, Texas; Steve McGill and wife Kathy of Denver, Colorado; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins from as far away as Colorado and Alabama.

John graduated from Highland Park High School in Dallas in 1965, then from Georgia Tech with a BS in Industrial Engineering in 1970. He went on to graduate school and received his PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981.

John began working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in 1981, first as a research associate for Rutgers University; then as a staff physicist for the lab. In 1990, he started working on the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) that was being built near Waxahachie, Texas. When that project was terminated by Congress in 1995, John began working in the Physics Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Then in 1997, he returned to Los Alamos to work with General Atomics Corporation, a company that designs and builds medical radiography equipment. He retired from GA and began life as an independent consultant in 2007.

In early 2009, John was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He participated in an ALS research study at Methodist Hospital in Houston until June 2010 when he was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor unrelated to ALS.

In addition to his professional activities, John was keenly interested in hiking and the preservation of the outdoor estate. He was particularly devoted to, and worked actively for, water conservation.

A memorial service will be held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cypress Mill, Texas, Saturday, September 11, at 3:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice Austin (www.hospiceaustin.org), the American Cancer Society

(www.cancer.org) for glioblastoma research, or the ALS Association (www.alsa.org),