John Lott (Jack) Brown, a long time member of ARVO, passed away on Sunday, January 16, 2011. He was 86. John was president of ARVO during the organization's 50th year, 1978.

A native of Philadelphia, he earned an electrical engineering degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a master's degree in psychology from Temple University and a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University in 1952. During his college years, he served in the Navy and then enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He later conducted research for the Navy on the body's ability to withstand space flight.

In 1954, he was named head of the psychology division in the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory at the Naval Air Development Center while simultaneously serving as an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He helped train astronauts in the early days of the US space program, specializing in characterizing visual performance under conditions of high acceleration.

John also served as president of the University of South Florida during some of its most critical growth years, during which the school expanded its curriculum in medicine and the sciences. During his term, USF established a medical school, an engineering college and the Moffitt Cancer Center. USF also added 38 degree programs, established campuses in Lakeland and Fort Myers and enlarged the USF libraries collection to include more than 1 million books and titles.

Jack's research interests included the broad field of human performance, but especially visual sensitivity and dark adaptation, which he studied using psychophysical and electrophysiological techniques.

John is survived by his wife Catharine; daughters Patricia Hale and her husband, Scott; Judith Brown and her husband, John Dombrowski; Barbara French and her husband, Roger; son Anderson Brown and his wife, Grisell Rodriguez; and six grandchildren.

*Information provided by the St. Petersburg Times*