John H. Dudley

John Henderson (Jack) Dudley was born in Oakland, California, on 25 September 1907, the son of Captain Clark DeWitt Dudley, an Army officer who had earned battlefield commission in the Philippine–American War, and his wife Margaret née Henderson, the daughter of an engineer who oversaw corporate mining operations in the California Mother Lode. Dudley had an older sister, Jane.[1] He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, on 1 July 1926.[2] He played football (although he did not earn a varsity letter in that sport),[3] and competed in track athletics and modern pentathlon.[4] He graduated 28th in the class of 1930, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Cavalry.[2]

Dudley's first assignment was with the 11th Cavalry Regiment, at the Presidio of San Francisco,[2] on 12 September 1930 to 28 May 1934.[5] He married Lillian Steinschneider in New York City on 12 September 1931.[1] He then went to Fort Riley, Kansas, with 2nd Cavalry Regiment from 15 June to 27 August 1934. He was a student at the Cavalry School there until 14 June 1935, and then became Assistant Post Quartermaster for harvesting hay, with the rank of first lieutenant from 1 August 1935. He attended the Signal Corps School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, from 19 August 1935 to 11 June 1936. He was then posted to Fort Brown, Texas, with the 12th Cavalry Regiment.[5]

On 14 August 1936, Dudley transferred to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and he was the 9th Engineer Regiment at Fort Riley. On 25 September 1938, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he graduated with a Master of Science degree in civil engineering on 2 September 1939.[5] His thesis was entitled An Experimental Investigation of the Upper and Lower Critical Velocities for Open Channels and his advisor was Kenneth C. Reynolds.[6] He then attended the Army Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, from 14 September 1939 to 2 February 1940. He was promoted to captain on 12 June 1940.[5]

After the war ended, Dudley was the Base Engineer in Nagoya from 9 December 1945 to 9 March 1946, and then commanded the 1190th Base Depot in Yokohama. He was awarded two Commendation Ribbons. He returned to the United States in August 1946, and was stationed at Fort Monroe until 26 August 1947, when he became a student at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. He was then assigned to the map and photograph branch of the Department of the Army in Washington, D.C.[7] He attended the Army War College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1950 and 1951, and then returned to Washington, D.C., as the chief of the Planning Branch of the Army Research and Development Division. He was chief engineer of VII Corps in Germany from 1954 to 1956, and was promoted to brigadier general in 1955. He commanded the 18th Engineer Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, from 1956 to 1958. His final assignment was as Assistant Commandant of the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir. He retired in 1960 after thirty years of service, with an oak leaf cluster to his Legion of Merit.[1][19]

Dudley joined the faculty of California State University in Long Beach, California, where he founded the Soil Mechanics Laboratory.[1] The College of Engineering library there is now named the John H. Dudley Memorial Library in his honor. He retired from California State University in 1970.[20] His wife Lillian died of cancer in 1977. Dudley was a long-time close friend of Lieutenant General James B. Lampert, a fellow graduate of West Point since the two had attended MIT together. Lampert died from cancer in 1978, and Dudley and Lampert's widow Margery (Gerri) married in 1980.[1] Dudley contributed an opening chapter entitled "Ranch School to Secret City" to the 1980 book Reminiscences of Los Alamos 1943–1945.[10]

Dudley died in Fairfax, Virginia, on 2 October 1994, and was buried in the West Point Cemetery beside his first wife.[1][21]