John Mattox was born to Dr. James Ellis Mattox and Caroline Elise Isely in Lawrence County, South Dakota. Caroline is a great-granddaughter of Elise & Christian. Her paternal grandparents are William Henry & Frances, and her parents are Merrill& Mildred.
This parents, Jim and Carol met in a chemistry lab while both were students attending North Western University near Chicago. They married days after graduation. Carol then worked as an industrial chemist (at Bauer & Black), supporting the family while James completed medical school. Following Jim's completion of residency (at the Chicago municipal hospital) they moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota where Jim grew up.
John grew up sharing many outdoor activities with his father - hunting, snow skiing, water skiing, sailing, flying, and scuba diving. During his youth, he traveled frequently with his mother to Kansas for visits with the Isely clan.
John's freshman year of college was at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1972. He obtained a BS in Physics in 81 from the University of Florida and got a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford in 87, writing a thesis on Gamma-Ray Astronomy.
John married Uta Linke in Germany. He was there to do research in Gamma-Ray Astronomy at the Max Planck Institute. He and Uta met folk dancing with a church group. After their marriage, they immediately moved to the suburbs of Washington DC (College Park) where John continued his work in Gamma-Ray Astronomy, working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. John began at that time to work on the genealogy of his Father's family, and then turned to Isely genealogy, joining forces initially with Anne Alexander Bingham, and then with Katherine and David McGuire.
You may reach him via e-mail at j9mattox@gmail.com.
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