Dad in Graduate School,

A. Neal de Gaston, Senior

      Dad started graduate school in September of 1961, after returning from a mission to the then North Central States Mission.   Though admitted to Cal-Tech for graduate school, he decided to go to BYU where all the LDS girls were, and thought that he could handle the relatively milder climate during the winter. He was there for one of the worst winters ever had with temperatures way below zero from November on (the first snowstorm was either September 27 or 28).

      Dad participated in campus politics and was elected a senator from the Graduate Class to the Student Body Senate. Dad finished his course work and all doctoral exams except the defense of his dissertation by the end of the Fall semester, 1963. There is no third year picture as in the second half of his third year (when pictures were being taken he was in California doing research...and thus not on campus for the yearbook pictures).

      He was really only a full time student until May of 1964, and then went to work for Autonetics (North American) where he finished his dissertation while living in California and making a good salary. Dad finished his Ph.D. in Physics with a minor in mathematical physics in March of 1965, and walked across the stage officially on May 28, 1965. He was awarded his degree with the highest honor designation then used, i.e., "with Distinction".


Pictures from my Graduate shool years, 1961-65
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah




Here I am as a first year graduate student:
1962 Fall61-Spring62 1st yr Grad School BYU 300dpi non-sharp.jpg


Dad is in his second year of graduate school:
1962 Fall 2nd yr Grad School BYU 300dpi non-sharp.

     During this 2nd year Dad owned a Triumph TR3 just like this one, but with wire wheels and the body was a dark purple which would have looked just about like this except in bright sunlight).  Dad thinks that the chromed wire wheels were prettier and more elegant (though harder to clean).  Dad's car also had a black top.  Yes, there are side windows ("curtains"), that you put in yourself or stored in the trunk.  About 1/2 of the 2-piece window slid on a track for opening. This a 1959 TR3A. Dad's was also a 1959, or maybe 1958.   The TR3 was manufactured from 1957 through 1961. The Triumph along with the MG and Austin-Healy is a true classic British sportscar.
1962-63 Triumph TR3 like one Dad had in grad school


Here is Dad as a member of the graduate class officers (He was a class
Senator to the full student body, representing the Graduate class): 1964 Neal Graduate Class Senator w other officers.

Finally, Dad graduated, and here he is in his doctoral robes:
65 5 26 Neal PhD robes at BYU.

And here is the coveted "Sheepskin":
http://www.degaston.org/Resume/65 5 28 Neal PhD in Physics fr BYU 150dpi.