John Clark Sutherland and Betsy Blake Middleton met on a blind date in the fall semester of 1961. John was a senior at Georgia Tech while Betsy was a freshman at Emory University. They were inseparable after meeting. While their majors were different, they would study together all the time.
In spring 1962, John graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics.
In spring 1964, Betsy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and enrolled for a master’s degree at Emory. John competed a master’s degree in physics and began studying for the Ph.D. comprehensive exams in physics at Georgia Tech. He studied in the biology department at Emory because Betsy was going to class there and also teaching
John Clark Sutherland and Betsy Blake Middleton met on a blind date in the fall semester of 1961. John was a senior at Georgia Tech while Betsy was a freshman at Emory University. They were inseparable after meeting. While their majors were different, they would study together all the time.
In spring 1962, John graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics.
In spring 1964, Betsy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and enrolled for a master’s degree at Emory. John completed a master’s degree in physics and began studying for the Ph.D. comprehensive exams in physics at Georgia Tech. He studied in the biology department at Emory because Betsy was going to class there and also teaching.
My background was physics, physics, physics. But we studied together most of the time. She was a biology major, and I picked up on some of the stuff. It rubs off on you.
John passed the Ph.D. comprehensive exams at Georgia Tech in June 1965 and started working with James R. Stevenson, on the optical properties of alkali metal at short wavelengths. He applied and received a predoctoral fellowship from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities and moved to Oak Ridge National Laboratory to do his research in the Health Physics Division under the supervision of E. T. Arakawa.
John and Betsy got married in August 1965, shortly after Betsy completed her master’s degree, under the supervision of Charles Ray, a protozoologist. She was writing her master’s thesis while planning their wedding. Betsy started Ph.D. work with Richard F. Kimball, a protozoologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who also had a faculty appointment at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
