Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

John F. Elliott Dies at 70

John F. Elliott Dies at 70

Professor John F. Elliott of Winchester, who was respected 
internationally for his contributions to metallurgical science and 
engineering, died Monday, April 15, at the MIT infirmary from 
complications resulting from a brain tumor. He was 70. A memorial 
service was held April 22, at the Church of the Epiphany in Winchester. 

Professor Elliott was a member of the Department of Materials Science 
and Engineering at MIT. For more than four decades, his name was 
associated with outstanding leadership in chemical-process metallurgy 
and in the specific field of steelmaking. The fruits of his research 
have been used by industries in many countries and his influence in his 
chosen field has been multiplied by the work of his many students, by 
his extensive publications, and by his lectures at universities in 
Japan, South America and Europe. In 1974 he was a visiting professor at 
Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and in 1976 he held a similar post 
at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1978 and again in 1981 he visited the PeopleŐs Republic of China. In 
1978 he was a member of a delegation organized by the Minerals, Metals 
and Materials Society and the American Institute of Mining, 
Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers. In 1981 he was vice chairman of 
the First Bilateral US-China Metallurgical Conference held in Beijing.

Professor Elliott made a major contribution to the literature in his 
field with the two-volume series, Thermochemistry for Steelmaking, 
published in 1960 and 1963. Later he was co-editor of Metallurgical 
Treatises, published in 1981. In addition he authored more than 210 
journal articles.

In 1982, he was one of two North American faculty members named AISI 
Distinguished Professors by the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Since 1978, Professor Elliott had been director of the Mining and 
Mineral Resources Research Institute created by the US Bureau of Mines 
at MIT. The institute coordinates teaching and research activities 
related to mineral resources for a consortium of New England 
universities.

 Professor Elliott was born in St. Paul, Minn., July 31, 1920 and 
received the bachelorŐs degree in metallurgical engineering with high 
distinction from the University of Minnesota in 1942. Later that year he 
began a four-year tour of World War II duty with the Navy in Washington 
and the South Pacific Theater, rising to the rank of lieutenant 
commander.

In 1946 he became a pre-doctoral fellow at MIT in what then was called 
the Department of Metallurgy. He received his doctoral degree in 1949.

From 1949 to 1951 he was a physical chemist with US Steel Corp. in 
Kearny, N.J. From 1951 to 1955 he was with Inland Steel Co. in Chicago 
as a research metallurgist and as assistant superintendent for quality 
control.

In 1955 he returned to MIT as associate professor of metallurgy. He was 
promoted to professor in 1960.

Professor Elliott, a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 
1975, has received many awards and honors, among them: the John Simon 
Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, Imperial College, England; election as a 
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; election as a 
fellow of The Metallurgical Society; Albert Easton White Distinguished 
Teacher Award, American Society of Metals; election to honorary 
membership, Iron and Steel Institute of Japan; election as a fellow of 
the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; election as a fellow of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science; honorary 
membership, Japan Institute of Metals; the Tawara Gold Medal, Iron and 
Steel Institute of Japan.

He is survived by his wife, Frances (Pendleton) Elliott; a son, William 
Stowe Elliott of Princeton Junction, N.J.; a daughter, Dorothy Elliott 
Sempolinski of Corning, N.Y.; two sisters, Dorothie Collins of Gibsonia, 
Pa., and Lois Thompson of Roseville, Minn.; and four grandsons.

Memorial donations may be made to the John F. Elliott Graduate 
Fellowship in Chemical Process Metallurgy, c/o MIT TreasurerŐs Office, 
238 Main St., Suite 200, Cambridge, Mass. 02142, or to the Parish of the 
Epiphany Education Fund, 70 Church St., Winchester, Mass. 01890.