Obed Crosby Haycock

He was born in Panguitch, Utah, on October 5, 1901.^[1] His parents were Edna Crosby and George Albert Haycock.^[1] He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Utah in 1925.^[1] He also had studied at Utah State University.^[1] He received a master of Science from Purdue University in 1931.^[1]

During World War II, he conducted research on radio communication in the jungles of Panama.^[1] He was also the director of vocational education in Utah.^[1]

Crosby was a research engineer at Rutgers University from 1944 to 1945. He became a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Utah, teaching there for 33 years.^[1] He started and operated a radio station KLGN in Logan, Utah in 1954 which he later sold.^[1]

He became the director of upper air research labs at the University of Utah in 1957, serving in this capacity for ten years, for a total of 43 years at the university.^[1] In this capacity, he pioneered the use of rockets to study the upper atmosphere, starting this work with German V-2 rockets captured during World War II.^[1] His research involved the upper atmosphere including the ionosphere/magnetosphere which is involved in diverse phenomena including the Aurora Borealis, weather patterns, and radio transmission. He did much of his research for the United States Army and later the United States Airforce. He was present during the detonation of the nuclear weapon at Bikini Atoll where he observed the effects of such on the ionosphere.

He was a recipient of the Outstanding Engineer Award from the University of Utah. He was a fellow of IEEE.^[1] He was a member of Phi Beta Phi honorary engineering fraternity, Sigma Xi, and Tau Beta Pi.^[1]

He wrote and contributed to many professional publications. This included an article on the coming of electrical power to Utah for the Utah Historical Quarterly.^[2]