ick Babcock '67 is supporting the Campaign for William and Mary by contributing toward the construction of a new addition to Small Hall to house an ultra high field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. One of only a few such spectrometers in the nation, this instrumentation will have a monumental impact on William and Mary's research and academic program.

"When I learned about this project, it took me back to when I was a student and the physics department was really ramping up. I remembered how much I got out of that opportunity," Babcock says. "It is exciting to help contribute to this type of leading-edge, nationally recognized work."

Working in applied physics for the past 40 years, Babcock understands the long-term payoff of investing in such research. "Universities make the scientific breakthroughs that companies like mine later put to use," he notes. A senior scientist for Mission Research Corporation in Albuquerque, N.M., Babcock studies the effects of the upper atmosphere on satellite technology. He began working for MRC in 1988, following a 20-year career in the Air Force, where he retired as a lieutenant colonel.

While in the service, Babcock attended graduate school at the universities of Texas and Michigan and received his Ph.D. in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "After attending big schools like Texas and Michigan, I learned to appreciate the small school advantages of a place like William and Mary."

A native of Arlington, Va., Babcock appreciates not only how much he learned in the College's classrooms as a physics major, but outside of them as well. He was president of his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, chief announcer for WCWM and a member of the gymnastics and swimming teams. These days, he and his wife, Judy, own four Arabian horses and he serves as president of the Rio Grande Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen of America, a national volunteer organization dedicated to keeping the back country open to the public.

Babcock wants to help preserve the general philosophy of William and Mary, "especially the way it does business," he says. "I know that state schools, in particular, won't be able to do that with current budgets, so they must count on other sources--alumni who had positive experiences and want to make those experiences available to future generations. I don't necessarily need to leave a legacy. I'm just happy knowing that I helped build the College."