Julius A. Stratton

Julius Adams Stratton (May 18, 1901 to June 22, 1994) was a physicist and electrical engineer who was associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for 74 years, first as an undergraduate, then as a professor, founding director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, provost, chancellor and president. Colleagues knew him as "Jay."¹

Stratton is not the Jay Stratton who directed the UAP Task Force. A May 2022 release from Radiance Technologies announced the hiring of "John F. Stratton Jr.," who had "recently retired" from a Defense Intelligence Senior Executive post with the Office of Naval Intelligence.² This page's subject was born in 1901 and died in 1994.

Early career and the Radiation Laboratory

Stratton was born in Seattle, Washington. His father, Julius A. Stratton, was an attorney who founded a law firm in the northwest and later became a judge.³ He transferred to MIT from the University of Washington in 1920, received his S.B. in 1923, and in March 1928 received a doctor of science in mathematical physics from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, where he studied under Peter Debye.³⁴ He returned to MIT as an assistant professor of electrical engineering, was moved to the physics department in 1930, and was promoted to professor in 1941, the year his book Electromagnetic Theory was published.³

The federal government established the Radiation Laboratory at MIT in October 1940. Stratton was appointed in November 1940 as a volunteer consultant to the Microwave Section of Division D of the National Defense Research Council, and was seconded to the laboratory, where his first assignment was the LORAN navigation system.⁵ In August 1942 he became expert consultant to the Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, and served in that post until December 1945.⁵ In that post he organized technical advisory committees to the Army Air Forces on ground radar, radar fire control and radar bombing, and then helped establish a development program for aids to all-weather flying.⁶ He chaired the Committee on Electronics of the Research and Development Board from 1946 to 1948, and he received the Medal for Merit from the Secretary of War in 1946.⁶

When the laboratory's work ended, Stratton took over its division of basic research on January 1, 1946. He named it the Research Laboratory of Electronics and served as its founding director until he became provost in 1949.⁴⁷

Provost and president

In 1949 James R. Killian Jr., then MIT's president, appointed Stratton the Institute's first provost.⁸ Stratton became a vice president and member of the Corporation in 1951 and was appointed chancellor in 1956, a title the memoir describes as new at MIT.⁸⁹

Killian went to Washington in November 1957 as special assistant for science and technology to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Stratton became acting president.⁹ The New York Times later described his leadership as beginning in 1957, when he was named acting president.¹⁰ He was elected the eleventh president in 1958, took office on January 1, 1959, and was formally inaugurated on June 15, 1959.⁹¹¹

His presidency saw the construction of new buildings for chemistry, earth sciences, biology and the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, and the opening of McCormick Hall, the first undergraduate dormitory for women, in 1965. Students suggested that the student center completed in 1966 be named for him.¹¹ He was succeeded in 1966, on reaching mandatory retirement age, by Howard W. Johnson.¹⁰¹²

Stratton served on the National Academy of Sciences Council. In 1963 he chaired a committee formed to study whether engineers should have a national academy. In the fall of 1964 the Academy's president, Frederick Seitz, proposed that the engineers' academy become part of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Council approved the proposal on December 5, 1964.¹³ The National Academy of Engineering held its first meeting on December 10, 1964, with 25 founding members, Stratton among them.¹³ In 1955 the Academy's president, Detlev Bronk, appointed a seven-member committee headed by Stratton to advise on the relation between loyalty questions and federal grants for unclassified research.¹⁴ A 1959 biographical sketch lists him as a member of the National Science Board, a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a member-trustee of the RAND Corporation and the MITRE Corporation, and a member of the corporation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.¹⁵

The National Science Board's list of former members gives his service as 1956 to 1962 and 1964 to 1967.¹⁶ On March 15, 1962, Jerome B. Wiesner, newly appointed Special Assistant for Science and Technology, and two Bureau of the Budget officials met the Board in closed session about reducing it from twenty-four members to twelve and making the Director of the National Science Foundation its chairman. Board members objected to the second proposal. Stratton proposed making the Director chairman of the Executive Committee instead, a compromise that was later accepted.¹⁷

Project Troy, CENIS and the CIA

The Center for International Studies at MIT (CENIS) was founded in 1951. Max Millikan was its first director, a post he took in 1952.¹⁸ A letter of November 1, 1951 from Gordon Gray, director of the Psychological Strategy Board, to Allen Dulles of the Central Intelligence Agency says that "Dr. Stratton, Provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the Center of International Studies," planned to present the Center's program to the Board and its staff on November 7, 1951. Gray wrote that the Center was "a continuation on an established basis of the work recommended by the Troy Report," the Project Troy study of Soviet jamming and political warfare, reported February 1, 1951, that MIT carried out under contract for the State Department.¹⁹

The CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence consulted Stratton on the unidentified flying object problem in 1952 and 1953. A memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence dated October 2, 1952 over the signature of H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, reported that CIA consultants had recommended a study group to analyze the factors in the problem, determine the fields of fundamental science to be investigated, and recommend research. It continued: "Dr. Julius A. Stratton, Vice President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has indicated to CIA that such a group could be constituted at that Institute. Similarly, Project Lincoln, the Air Force's air defense project at MIT, could be charged with some of these responsibilities."²⁰

A memorandum for the record dated December 3, 1952, signed by Philip G. Strong of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, records that at 1100 "yesterday morning" Strong met "Dr. Julius A. Stratton, Executive Vice President and Provost of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. Max Millikan, Director of CENIS." Strong briefed them on new sighting reports, including the Limestone Base case, a Florida scoutmaster case and the Utah motion pictures, and updated Stratton on developments "since our previous discussion of the subject in August." Strong wrote: "Dr. Stratton reiterated his earlier position that this is a subject which must be investigated and he said that probably the best means of getting a thoroughly competent review of the problem would be through Project LINCOLN." Stratton added that, given the delicate position of Lincoln in relation to the Air Force after the "Summer Study Report," acceptance of the project by Lincoln must rest on Air Force concurrence or on an independent proposal from one of the other services. Strong recorded that Stratton "said that Alfred Hill would be the best man to head the group."²¹ Albert G. Hill, an MIT physicist who succeeded Stratton as director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics in 1949 and directed the MIT Lincoln Laboratory from 1952 to 1955, is listed among the Project Troy participants as "A.G. Hill." Albert G. Hill was then director of the Lincoln Laboratory; the memorandum gives the first name as Alfred.²²²³

Strong wrote that, assuming Lincoln proved impractical, he and the two men explored other locations including Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology, and that Stratton "felt very strongly that Cal Tech would be the better of the two in view of the presence there of Robertson, Lauritson, Spitzer (on temporary duty from Princeton), Millikan's brother and others." Stratton "asked particularly that we keep him informed of the progress that we make in having this problem investigated as he is personally very interested as well as fully aware of the potential danger and implications of the situation."²¹ Strong then lunched at the faculty club with Lloyd Berkner and Jerrold Zacharias. Berkner, "while apparently not interested in taking a personal part, felt strongly that the saucer problem should be thoroughly investigated from a scientific point of view." Zacharias suggested Shirley Quimby of Columbia University, "probably the most expert man in the country on magic and general chicanery." Strong's conclusion was that "it will probably be necessary to secure the full backing of DCI in order that a scientific review of this problem may be laid on."²¹

The Robertson Panel, chaired by H. P. Robertson of the California Institute of Technology, met under the Office of Scientific Intelligence from January 14 to 18, 1953; its report of January 17, 1953 is signed by Robertson, Luis W. Alvarez, Berkner, Samuel Goudsmit and Thornton Page.²⁴ On January 27, 1953 Chadwell wrote to "Dr. Julius A. Stratton, Provost" at MIT: "Remembering your request to be kept informed of any progress in the problem of 'unidentified flying objects,' this letter will bring you up to date." The letter states that in December the section of the Air Technical Intelligence Center charged with investigating sighting reports had given a briefing at the Agency, that it was recommended that CIA assemble a panel of highly qualified personnel, and that "Particular competency in the fields of physics, radar and astronomy was believed desirable." It enclosed the panel report, a list of personnel and the evidence presented, and ended: "Incidentally, knowledge of any interest of CIA in the subject of 'flying saucers' has been carefully restricted, in view of probable misunderstanding if it were publicly known."²⁵

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation made Stratton a trustee in 1955. The foundation's 1965 annual report lists him on the board's executive committee, with John J. McCloy as chairman and Henry T. Heald, Roy E. Larsen and Charles E. Wyzanski Jr. among its other members, and states that McCloy, a board member since 1953 and chairman since 1959, would retire on December 31, 1965, and that Stratton, "president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a trustee of the Foundation since 1955," had "been elected chairman" to replace him.²⁶ The Harvard Crimson reported the succession on November 15, 1965, saying that a source close to Stratton had said he accepted the chairmanship, and that as a trustee he had been consulted on the selection of presidential candidates and had supported McGeorge Bundy as the best man for the job.²⁷

In a memorandum to President Lyndon B. Johnson of December 4, 1965 on his resignation as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, Bundy wrote: "John McCloy is out of town, so I have spoken to his successor, Jay Stratton, who is a deeply discreet man. Stratton immediately undertook to agree, in the name of the Trustees, to the condition which I have stated in the next to last paragraph," a condition that he be free to accept special assignments from Johnson.²⁸

Stratton changed several board practices. He introduced a mandatory retirement age and fixed terms for trustees, and set up trustee committees paired with staff divisions on the model of MIT's visiting committees. In an oral history conducted after his term, he described his method: "My procedure has been to involve every member [in discussions], to turn to him for what he thinks on each issue."²⁹ He remained chairman until 1971, when he returned to MIT full time.³⁰

On September 23, 1966 Bundy, by then the foundation's president, wrote to Stratton as chairman of the board of trustees that the foundation would make a grant of 7,000,000 dollars over six years to the Congress for Cultural Freedom. "It may raise a few eyebrows among those who know or think they know the previous financial history of the Congress," Bundy wrote, "but it is the right thing to do at the right time."³¹

When Stratton left the board, its resolution said that "He leaves the foundation stronger than he found it, and all who care for its work are deeply in his debt."²⁹

Commission on Marine Science, Engineering and Resources

Public Law 89-454, enacted June 17, 1966, authorized the Commission on Marine Science, Engineering and Resources.³² The members were appointed by the President on January 9, 1967, and the commission, known as the Stratton Commission, was chaired by Stratton, who was identified in its roster as chairman of the Ford Foundation. Its vice chairman was Richard A. Geyer of Texas A&M University. The other members included the attorney Leon Jaworski, George E. Reedy, president of Struthers Research and Development Corporation, Jacob Blaustein, director of Standard Oil Company (Indiana), John A. Knauss, dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and, as government members, Under Secretary of the Navy Charles F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Frank C. DiLuzio and Robert M. White, administrator of the Environmental Science Services Administration. The congressional advisers were Senators Norris Cotton and Warren G. Magnuson and Representatives Alton A. Lennon and Charles A. Mosher. Samuel A. Lawrence was executive director. Stratton also chaired the commission's Panel on Manpower, Education, and Training.³²³³

The commission's final report, Our Nation and the Sea: A Plan for National Action, was transmitted to Speaker of the House John W. McCormack on January 9, 1969, over Stratton's signature as chairman. The transmittal letter states that three members, Baird, DiLuzio and White, abstained on the recommendations relating to government organization.³² Among the recommendations was the establishment of a major civilian agency, NOAA, to administer federal civil marine and atmospheric programs.³⁴ In July 1970 Richard Nixon sent Congress Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1970, which created the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the plan took effect on October 3, 1970.³⁵ Nixon's message to Congress of July 9, 1970 stated: "In formulating these reorganization plans, I have been greatly aided by the work of the President's Advisory Council on Executive Organization (the Ash Council), the Commission on Marine Science, Engineering and Resources (the Stratton Commission, appointed by President [Lyndon] Johnson), my special task force on oceanography headed by Dr. James Wakelin and by the information developed during both House and Senate hearings on proposed NOAA legislation."³⁵ One outcome of the commission's work was NOAA; its recommendations on international cooperation and the conservation of marine resources were "strongly opposed by fishing and other commercial marine interests."³⁶

Later years and death

Stratton returned to MIT full time in 1971. Beginning in 1972 he worked on a history of the Institute's origins with his administrative assistant, Loretta B. Mannix, who did most of the archival research. After his death, Philip N. Alexander completed the book, Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT, which MIT Press published in 2005.³⁰ He had married Catherine Nelson Coffman on June 14, 1935, and they had three daughters.³⁰

Stratton died of pneumonia on June 22, 1994, at Goddard House, a nursing home in Boston; the New York Times obituary by Eric Pace was published June 24, 1994, and reported that he was awarded 17 honorary degrees.¹⁰ MIT's news office reported that he was 93 and that his successor, Howard W. Johnson, said his association with the Institute spanned more than 70 years.¹² Paul E. Gray, then chairman of the MIT Corporation, said Stratton "provided distinguished, wise and compassionate leadership to the Institute."¹²