Professor Emeritus of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0435
"Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action."-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
CONTENTS: Family |
Background | Physics |
Interdisciplinary Studies |
Genealogy | Internet |
Habitat for Humanity | New River
Family Shelter | Montgomery County Emergency Assistance
Program | Valley Interfaith Child Care Center |
Aviation | Acting |
Politics | Religion |
Bass trombonist Blacksburg Community Band | Sustainable Blacksburg |
L. David Roper Vita
Cost of Bush Iraq War
Triple Threats for the Human Future
Prediction of Global Warming
World Energy
Buy a BOGO LED flashlight and give one to people in the places of darkness.
RET Proto-Oncogene (Chromosome 10) and Medullary Thyroid Cancer
My favorite
professor: Dr. William E.Neptune, Oklahoma Baptist University
My favorite web
site
(Earth
weather patterns)
Earth
at
Night
My favorites: Computer
Programs
Do you want to switch to a Linux
computer?
| My favorite pieces of hardware: | ||
Toyota Prius and an Ocean Frenzy kayak (River Roper). Click on the car. |
Toyota Highlander Hybrid Click on the car. |
ZAP Xebra PK electric pickup The vehicle's name is Sun Roper. Click on the car. |
 Maltron keyboard It is claimed to cure repetitive-motion syndrome. You can get it with a track ball on the center pedestal. It takes a week or two to get used to it, but then you hate using any other keyboard. A less expensive version of it is the Ergomatic. |
 ViewSonic V1100 Tablet PC (No longer in production.) |
 Hewlett Packard f2304 23" monitor |
Join the
search for
extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Notes for
talk on SETI.
Go back to the top of this page.
I was born on Friday, 13 December 1935 in Shattuck, Ellis County Oklahoma. I attended grade and high school at Arnett, Oklahoma, the county seat of Ellis County, graduating in 1954. I graduated with honors from Oklahoma Baptist University (Profile In Excellence award 1985), with majors in physics and mathematics and a minor in chemistry in 1958. I got the Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963. After two and one-half years as a postdoctoral appointtee at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory , in Livermore, California, I taught two years at Kentucky Southern College in Louisville, Kentucky. I joined the physics faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (now Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) in 1967. I was Department Head from 1990-1995. In 1996 I took an early retirement option at half pay with no duties; I officially retired on 1 June 1998.
I did research and/or taught at the following times and locations:
I do genealogical research on the following families:
FAMILY PERSONS IN FILES PLACES Roper 280,000 U.S., England, Australia, New Zealand Little 108,000 U.S. and Germany Franklin 538,000 U.S., England, Australia, New Zealand
Other surnames associated with these families are:
Roper:
Dysart,
Flowers,
Hall,
Patton,
Tallent
Little: Bruce,
Cearley/Kerley,
Dodderer,
Eigener,
Hunsucker/Hunsicker,
Loudermilk,
Murphree,
Pope/Pabst,
Odom/Odium,
Yount,
Zimmerman
Franklin: DeShane,
Donnell,
Folger/Foulger,
Graves,
Higginbotham,
Lucas,
Nelson,
Sedore,
Thomas,
Vardy/Varty,
Witcher
I am
glad to share information about these families with others.
Many GEDCOM and
descendants'-list files of my data are available for downloading at:
L. David Roper Genealogy. I would
like to receive additional information about these families, preferably as
GEDCOM files to save typing.
My ancestral chart (222 kbytes) is available for viewing.
I taught a course on Genealogy Using a Computer and the Internet for the Virginia Tech YMCA Open University in March 2000, February 2001 and April 2001 and for Elderhostel at Mountain Lake in (Genealogy Using the Internet) October 2001 and (Genealogy Using the Internet and Genetics) October 2002.
A Lindows/Linux Genealogy Notebook
Machine
How to install GRAMPS (Genealogical
Research and Analysis Management Programming System) on Lindows.
I have a cable-line connection to the Internet at home. I created and maintain the following web pages:
I am on the Board of Directors and am the internet coordinator of the New River Valley Habitat for Humanity, which builds low-cost house in Montgomery Co., Pulaski Co., Floyd Co., Giles Co. and the City of Radford. Make donations for these houses to New River Valley Habitat for Humanity, P.O. Box 570, Christiansburg VA 24073.
I am the internet coordinator of the New River Family Shelter, Christiansburg VA.
I am on the Board of Directors and am the internet coordinator of the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program.
I am on the Board of Directors and am the internet coordinator of the Valley Interfaith Child Care Center.
I helped run an airport when I was in high school. My wife, Jeanne, gave me a flying lesson for my birthday on 13 December 1993. I got the private pilot's license on 4 December 1996. I am certified to fly the Cessna 152 and Cessna 172. The Appalachian mountains around Blacksburg are a wonderful setting for recreational flying. An excellent introduction to flying with correct physics is See How It Flies by John S. Denker. After accumulating 181 hours and 711 landings, I recently decided to quit flying because of the large number of factors over which I had no control. I thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of it for five years.
If you are interested in aviation, you might benefit from my web page about VOR navigation:http://www.roperld.com/aviation/VORNav.htm.
climate prediction.