John McTague

John Paul McTague, a distinguished scientist who impacted the world of science in research, academia, industry and government, died on Friday, June 7, 2013 at the age of 74 at his home in Montecito, California. John McTague graduated from Xavier High School in New York, NY. Growing up in Jersey City, he met and married Carole Frances Reilly, to whom he was married 35 years when she passed in 1997. A physical chemist, John McTague received his undergraduate degree with honors in chemistry from Georgetown University in 1960 and his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1964. Brown also bestowed on him an honorary Sc.D. in 1997. He was a technical staff member at North American Rockwell Center from 1964 to 1974 and a professor of chemistry and a member of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCLA from 1970 to 1982. There and at Riso and Brookhaven National Laboratories, he led experiments in the structure and dynamics of condensed phases. He then became the first chair of the National Synchrotron Light Source Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Following his position as Chair of the National Synchrotron Light Source, he was appointed as Deputy Director then Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Reagan. He then joined Ford Motor Company in 1986 as Vice President of Research and then Vice President of Technical Affairs until his retirement from Ford in 1999. During the first Bush Administration, he was a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and U.S. chair of the U.S.-Japan High Level Advisory Panel on Science and Technology. Dr. McTague was founding co-chair of the Department of Energy's Laboratory Operations Board, and a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board from its inception in 1990 through 2000. In 1992, he was a founding member of the University of California President's Council on the National Laboratories and was the first chair man of the council's Technology Transfer Panel, serving on both until 1995. From 1994 to 1999, he was also chairman of the Fermilab Board of Overseers. In his later career years, McTague served as vice president of laboratory management for the University of California, Office of the President, and then as a Professor Emeritus of Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. John McTague is survived by his four children; son, Kevin (Christine) McTague of Santa Barbara, CA; daughter, Catherine (Douglas) Bregenzer of San Anselmo, CA; daughter, Margaret (Daniel) McCreary of East Longmeadow, MA; and daughter, Maureen (Mark) Sandoval of Orinda, CA; along with nine grandchildren and his sister Mary (Andrew) Dempsey of Hilton Head, SC.