William C. Davidon
| William C. Davidon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 18, 1927 Fort Lauderdale |
| Died | November 8, 2013 (aged 86) Highlands Ranch, Colorado |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | physics professor |
| Known for | Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI |
William Cooper Davidon (March 8, 1927 – November 8, 2013) was an American professor of physics and mathematics, and a peace activist. He was the mastermind of the March 8, 1971, FBI office break-in, in Media, Pennsylvania, and the informal leader of the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI which led to the disclosure of COINTELPRO, which in turn led to subsequent investigations and reforms of the FBI.
Davidon was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1927. He attended Purdue University and graduated from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in 1957.
From 1954 to 1956, he was a research associate at the Enrico Fermi Institute. From 1956 to 1961, he was an associate physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory, where he developed the first quasi-Newton algorithm, now known as the Davidon–Fletcher–Powell formula. He was professor of physics at Haverford College, beginning in 1961, and then Professor of Mathematics, as his interests shifted to include mathematical logic, set theory and non-standard analysis. He retired in 1991. He was a 1966 Fulbright Scholar.
Davidon moved to Highlands Ranch, Colorado, in 2010. He died November 8, 2013, of Parkinson's disease.
In 1966, he traveled to South Vietnam, with A. J. Muste, sponsored by the Committee for Non-Violent Action. He also announced that year that he would be refusing to pay his federal income tax in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1971, he was named an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Harrisburg Seven case. He was on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union, Philadelphia affiliate.
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