A memorial service for Dr. Herbert Priestley, who died last year, will be held Sunday October 15, 2006, at 1:00 p.m. in Kresge Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Friends are invited to attend. Following the service, friends and family are invited to gather at the home of Rossann Baker-Priestley, 1616 North Broad Street.

Obituary: Professor Emeritus Herbert Priestley

Professor Emeritus Herbert Priestley died October 13, 2005. He was born May 29, 1913, in Bradford, England, the son of Joshua and Violetta Dyson Priestley. He married Elizabeth Jane Vorhes in 1950. She died in 1985. He married Rossann Baker on October 22, 1988, in Avon, Illinois.

Dr. Priestley attended the University of Leeds, where he received a bachelor of science degree in 1933 and a Ph.D. in physics in 1935.

He served as an industrial research physicist and civilian education officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) prior to being called to active duty as an air intelligence officer in 1939, where he was responsible for the air defense of London and southeastern England during the Battle of Britain. He came to the United States in 1942 as an RAF liaison officer to the Army Air Force Air Intelligence School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1944, he was assigned as RAF liaison officer to the director of intelligence, War Department at the Pentagon.

Dr. Priestley was considered a leader in the World War II intelligence effort against both Germany and Japan. He was awarded The Order of the British Empire and, in 1945, the Legion of Merit by the United States Military Intelligence Service. The Legion of Merit, which is given in recognition of "exceptionally outstanding conduct in the performance of meritorious service to the United States," recognizes, among other things, Dr. Priestley's studies, knowledge, and forecasts of the German air power during World War II -- its aircraft, production, training, and activation techniques -- and his 500-page report "German Technical Aid to Japan."

Following World War II, Dr. Priestley taught for six years at Ripon College. Then, in 1952, he accepted the position of chairman of the physics department at Knox College, where he taught until retiring in 1980. He was the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Physics at Knox and also served as the College's director of deferred giving.

Dr. Priestley's book, Introductory Physics, was written to confirm the importance of science in the lives of those students concentrating in areas outside of science. He was director/instructor of the Summer Institute in Science and Society for High School Teachers under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. In 1967, he spent six months at Harvard University, working on "Harvard Project Physics," a curriculum for high school students. A dedicated teacher, he established the physics department at Carl Sandburg College and taught at Henry C. Hill Correctional Facility for Carl Sandburg College and Roosevelt University, retiring from active teaching in 1998.

Dr. Priestley was a member and past president of the Galesburg Exchange Club and 1990 Exchangite of the Year. He served as vice chairman of the Orpheum Theatre Renovation Project and served on the planning committee for Discovery Depot Children's Museum and the board of the Galesburg Civic Arts Center. He was also a guest editorialist for The Register-Mail and active with Friends of the Library. In 2002, he was inducted into the Knox-Lombard Athletic Hall of Fame.