Elroy O. LaCasce Jr. papers

Born on January 17, 1923, in Fryeburg, Maine, Elroy O. LaCasce, Jr. attended Fryeburg Academy, where his father was headmaster. He graduated in 1940. LaCasce attended Bowdoin College from 1940 to 1944. While a student, he taught in the Naval Training School at Bowdoin. In 1945 he served as the vice consul in Beirut, Lebanon for the US Foreign Service. LaCasce earned his master’s in physics from Harvard in 1951 and a Ph.D. from Brown University in 1955. He joined the Bowdoin faculty as a professor of physics in 1954.

LaCasce’s expertise was in underwater acoustics. He wrote numerous publications on the physics of sound. He was a researcher at Bowdoin and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a member of the Acoustical Society of America and American Association of Physics Teachers. LaCasce also spent his time figure skating and was a judge for the US Figure Skating Association from 1961 to 1991.

In the Department of Physics and Astronomy, LaCasce began the tradition of sending annual newsletters to department alumni to keep track of the lives of his former students. Often, students would respond personally to LaCasce. This collection of letters can be found in the Correspondence series.

LaCasce retired from Bowdoin in 1993, was elected Professor of Physics Emeritus, and was awarded the college’s Alumni Award for Faculty and Staff. He remained in Maine after his retirement and stayed active in the Bowdoin community. Elroy O. LaCasce, Jr. died in Raymond, Maine on September 8, 2015.