Dr. Walter McAfee.
Scientist Pioneer
The First Man To Ever Calculate The Speed Of The Moon using the world’s first lunar radar echo experiments with Project Diana.
His recognition came many years later.
Dr. Walter S. McAfee ’85HN was a mathematical physicist who worked for many decades at Fort Monmouth in the United States Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), and lectured in atomic and nuclear physics and solid state electronics at Monmouth College from 1958 to 1975.
He also served on the Curriculum Advisory Council of the Electronics Engineering Department at Monmouth and was recognized with an honorary doctorate of science in 1985.
Dr. McAfee was a distinguished African American scientist and a pioneer. In an era when even programs stemming from the New Deal of the 1930s were racially segregated and blacks and whites rarely worked alongside each other, McAfee completed his Master of Science in theoretical physics at Ohio State University in 1937. He was one of the very few African Americans earning advanced degrees in physics at the time.
McAfee was born in Ore City, Texas to African-American parents Luther F. McAfee and Susie A. Johnson; McAfee was the second oldest of nine children. The family moved to Marshall, Texas, where McAfee would grow up and attend undergraduate school. He graduated high school in Marshall in 1930 and later noted that his high school physics and chemistry teacher, Freeman Prince Hodge, was a great influence of him. Following the completion of his master’s degree, McAfee took a job in 1939 teaching science and mathematics in Columbus, Ohio. In 1941, he married Viola Winston, who taught French at the same junior high school in Columbus, Ohio where McAfee taught.McAfee and Winston had two daughters,
McAfee attended Wiley College, where his mother studied, graduating with a B.S. in mathematics in 1934. Following his undergraduate work, McAfee attended Ohio State University and earned his M.S. in physics in 1937. After his work on Project Diana with the United States Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories, McAfee returned to school, receiving the Rosenwald Fellowship to continue his doctoral studies at Cornell University. In 1949, McAfee was awarded his Ph.D. in Physics for his work on nuclear collisions under Hans Bethe.
In 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented him with one of the first Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowships. The fellowship enabled McAfee to spend two years studying radio astronomy at Harvard University.
McAfee gained recognition with Project Diana which bounced an electronic echo from the moon’s surface back to an antenna at the Evans Signal Laboratory in Wall Township, New Jersey. His theoretical calculations determined the feasibility of this original radar “moon bounce.” On January 10, 1946, the experiment was conducted successfully, an achievement that many regard as the beginning of the Space Age.
McAfee went on to earn his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1949 and during his career, wrote studies on radar coverage patterns including diffraction around the curved surface of the Earth, and the discovery that high-altitude nuclear explosions can cause communications blackouts.
In 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented him with one of the first Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowships. The fellowship enabled McAfee to spend two years studying radio astronomy at Harvard University.
McAfee died at his home in South Belmar, New Jersey, on February 18, 1995.
His calculations earned him nationwide recognition and numerous awards, including the first U.S. Army Research and Development Achievement Award in 1961. A decade later, he was the first African American employee to be promoted to GS-16, a “super-grade” civilian position. McAfee’s rank is now regarded as the predecessor of today’s federal Senior Executive Service.
McAfee was inducted into the Science Hall of Fame in 1982 at his alma mater, Wiley College, Marshall, Texas. Monmouth College (now Monmouth University) recognized his scientific accomplishments, service to the country, and commitment to academic excellence with an honorary doctorate in 1985. The same year McAfee received the Steven’s Award at Steven’s Institute of Technology.
After his death in 1995, Fort Monmouth named the McAfee Center on its grounds to house the Information and Intelligence Warfare Electronic Directorate. With the closing of the fort and the relocation of the CECOM to Maryland, McAfee’s legacy was transferred out of state with the naming of a research building at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 2011.
In 2015 he was the first African American to be inducted into the Army Materiel Command’s Hall of Fame.
The Dr. Walter S. McAfee ‘85HN Endowed Scholarship in Science honors his memory by providing opportunities for developing the next generation of diverse scientists in New Jersey, where his world-changing discoveries took place. This endowed scholarship named in memory of Dr. McAfee will support economically disadvantaged students to attend Monmouth University in pursuit of an education in any of the sciences while celebrating a distinguished faculty member who broke racial and scientific boundaries.
Available publications digital
Walter S. McAfee. Determination of energy spectra of backscattered electrons by use of Everhart’s theory. Journal of Applied Physics 47, 1179 (1976); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.322700.
Gerald J. Iafrate, Walter S. McAfee, and A. Ballato. Electron backscattering from solids and double layers. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology 13, 843 (1976)