James H. Wakelin, Jr.

James Henry Wakelin Jr. (May 6, 1911 – December 21, 1990) was a United States physicist, oceanographer, and businessman who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research and Development) from 1959 to 1964.

James H. Wakelin Jr. was born on May 6, 1911 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. After graduating from high school in 1928, Wakelin received an A.B. in physics from Dartmouth College in 1932; a B.A. in natural sciences from Cambridge University in 1934; an M.A., also from Cambridge, in 1939; and a doctorate in physics from Yale University in 1940.

During 1939-43, he was a senior physicist in the physical research department of the B.F. Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio. Wakelin's work at B.F. Goodrich focused on the structure and physical properties of natural and synthetic rubber, and with X-ray diffraction and electron microscope studies of high polymers.

In 1943, Wakelin became an ordnance staff officer to the Coordinator of Research and Development of the United States Department of the Navy in Washington, D. C. In 1945, he joined the United States Navy's Office of Research and Inventions as head of the Chemistry, Mathematics, and Mechanics and Materials Sections of the Planning Division. In that role, he was active in the organization of the Office of Naval Research in 1946.

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