James William Straight

James “Jim” Straight was born to Russell James and Marian (Ringer) Straight on August 5, 1940 in Wichita, Kansas. His family relocated frequently during his father’s service in the U.S. Army during WW2, eventually settling in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

He graduated from Bartlesville’s College High School in 1958, received his BS Mechanical Engineering from University of Kansas in January 1963 and his master’s degree in August that same year. He was then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. As the top engineering student in KU’s ROTC program, Jim was given a 4-year deferment in order to pursue his PhD at Arizona University which he completed in early 1967. He entered the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps later that year and earned the rank of Captain before completing his tour of duty in 1969.

While attending KU as a third-generation Jayhawker, Jim married his wife of 59 years, Roberta “Bobbye” (Cunningham) Straight, also from Bartlesville, on August 12, 1961. The couple’s son William Herbert Straight was born while they were stationed at Sandia Base in Albuquerque, NM in 1967 and their daughter, Suzanne (Straight) Miller was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970.

In his early career, Jim held a number of teaching positions in Tennessee including an assistant professorship in engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He also taught at Christian Brothers College in Memphis for several years, where he and his wife were known for joint-teaching a Mechanical Engineering Lab/Tech Writing Course.  Decades later, the couple continued to hear from students about how valuable the course had been in their professional careers.

After taking a position at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Jim and his family moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he would live for the rest of his life. His 30-year career with the Lab focused on experimentation on structural dynamics, strength analysis and material science applied to high explosives. He became one of a handful of experts to combine physics, chemistry and engineering of unique techniques for an understanding of how explosives work in nanosecond time scales and micron length scales.

Calling it the best job he ever had, Jim wrote “Being the Group Leader of M-8 was a fantastic opportunity to do cutting edge research in many areas and do it while working with a superb group of high-level staff members, technicians and support team. Being their leader was a high honor all by itself.” He retired from The Lab in 2006 but would return for another two years as guest scientist.

Jim was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education. His honors and awards include: KU Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award (2003), DOE Defense Programs Award of Excellence, Society of Automotive Engineer’s Teetor Award for teaching excellence, and Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army Ordnance Center and School.

An avid outdoorsman, Jim was a 45-year member of the Los Alamos Mountaineers Club, exploring pitches all across northern New Mexico and Yosemite Valley and teaching the annual Climbing School for many years. He especially enjoyed hiking in wide open spaces with the Lemon Lot Hikers and kept a map of all his hikes in the Valle Caldera. His neighbors in Pajarito Acres could set their clocks by his daily walks with his dogs Ike, BJ and Copper. The bass in Canada’s Lake Du Bois will miss his trusty bright orange spinner bait.

Jim was a devoted family man and loyal friend. He is survived by his son, William, daughter Suzanne and her husband Timothy Miller, nephew Peter Adams, niece Jennifer Adams and their spouses and children. Among the special friends who will miss him are Junie, Paul and Carla Janzen, Kate Massengale, John Hahn, Loui and Dave Janecky and Dale Coy.

Jim is preceded in death by his wife, Bobbye, his sister Sara (Straight) Adams, his parents Marian (Ringer) and Russell James Straight, and his grandparents Herbert Russell and Katherine (Haskell) Straight.

A memorial service will be planned for a later date. William and Suzy invite Jim’s friends to have a small, ceramic memorial stone made from his ashes in a process developed at The Lab. These stones can be kept in his memory or taken out to places that hold special meaning in tribute to his love of the outdoors. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to participate.

Memorial donations can be made to the Russell J. and James W. Straight Scholarship Fund at KU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering by mailing to KU Endowment, PO Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044 or go online at https://kuendowment.org/JamesStraight.  Please designate gifts to the “Russell J. and James W. Straight Scholarship.”