James P. Gordon – Men’s Champion and almost Nobel Laureate

James Power Gordon was born in Brooklyn, NY, on March 20, 1928, and was raised in Forest Hills and Scarsdale, NY

He attended Scarsdale High School and Phillips Exeter Academy (Class of 1945). In 1949 he received a bachelor’s degree from MIT and joined the physics Department of Columbia University as a graduate student. He received his Masters and PhD degrees in physics in 1951 and 1955, respectively.

In the framework of his doctoral research he designed, built and demonstrated the successful operation of the first maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) together with H. Zeiger and with his doctoral advisor Prof. Charles H. Townes. There was considerable skepticism about whether the device would work and some of his colleagues said maser really stood for money acquisition scheme for expensive research. Gordon however was a believer and had a bet of a bottle of bourbon that it would work. He won.

The invention of the maser won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which C.H. Townes shared in 1964 with the Russian scientists N. Bassov and A. Prokhorov. Dr. Townes, who thought Gordon should also have been included in the honor, gave some of his Nobel Prize money to Gordon who used it to buy a Buick station wagon.

Starting in 1955 and until his retirement in 1996, James P. Gordon worked as a scientist at AT&T Bell-Laboratories, where in the period between 1958 and 1980 he headed the Quantum Electronics Research Department, located initially in Murray Hill and Holmdel Township, both in the state of New Jersey.

In addition to his Men’s National Championship in 1959 he won the Mixed Nationals in 1961 and 1962. Gordon was invariably seen with the raccoon coat that was de rigueur among the top paddle players at the time.

Source: James P Gordon

Historical Factoid: Gordon was a year ahead of Hall of Famer Bob Brown at Scarsdale High School. They were in the same Boy Scout troop and were both Eagle Scouts. They also both played trumpet in the high school band but Bob admits Gordon was the better player.