Researching John North

John North was educated in Bury St Edmunds and entered Jesus College, Cambridge as a fellow-commoner in February 1660/1. He graduated BA in 1663/4, and (by Royal mandate) became a fellow of Jesus in 1664. In 1672 he migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge, and was Regius Professor of Greek from 1672 to 1674. Made Clerk of the Closet in 1673, he was a prebendary of Westminster from 1673 to 1683 and chaplain to the King from 1676 to 1683. He was Master of Trinity from 1677 to 1683. He is buried in Trinity College Chapel.

A native of Gilliam, North grew up in Old Hickory, Tenn. He lettered in football, basketball and track at Castle Heights High School in Tennessee. He is a member of the Castle Heights Hall of Fame.

After receiving several offers, he signed with Vanderbilt, where he played football and basketball and ran track in 1942. But after his freshman year, he enlisted in the Marines to fight in World War II at the age of 17. He achieved the rank of sergeant, but was wounded on the Island of Tinian, having been shot multiple times in both calves, and was rushed to medical care. His parents were told that he had died, and upon discovering he was alive but injured, inquired about his condition. The doctors said he would never walk again. This proved only to hold true for about a year. He had begun walking around the hospital on his hands in his free time, and pushed himself hard in physical therapy, that he soon regained his strength. He was awarded a Purple Heart.

After his playing career, North moved into coaching. He was a high school coach in Alabama, then in college at Tennessee Tech, Kentucky, and LSU before moving into the professional ranks with the Detroit Lions. In 1973, he became offensive coordinator of New Orleans Saints. With two games remaining in the 1973 preseason, head coach J.D. Roberts was fired and North was chosen to replace him. In his first regular season game, the Saints were embarrassed at Tulane Stadium by the rival Atlanta Falcons 62–7. New Orleans went 5–9 in both 1973 and 1974, the team's final seasons at Tulane Stadium. North led the Saints into the Louisiana Superdome in 1975, but was fired on October 27 following a 38–14 loss to the Los Angeles Rams which left the team 1-5. He subsequently spent seven years as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Falcons and one season as quarterback coach for the USFL New Orleans Breakers.

North built upon his nitrates business by expanding into further monopolies in waterworks and freight railways, but also owned several iron and coal fields. North maintained his monopolies by employing lawyers to block competing entrepreneurs both in court and the Chilean National Congress. This was allowed by Chilean president Domingo Santa María, but Santa María's successor, José Manuel Balmaceda, became concerned that Tarapacá was starting to resemble a "state within a state" and resolved to break North's monopoly. Balmaceda had to force competition reforms through against opposition in congress, amongst a series of disputes which would eventually escalate into the 1891 Chilean Civil War between the president and the congress.

North also had investments in the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company which operated a concession in the Congo Free State. This company was involved in the extraction and export of rubber from the state, another highly profitable business, but later became involved in abuses of human rights against those under its power. However North's finances were eventually depleted and when he died his business empire had collapsed.

North was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1934. He attended Batley Grammar School and then read Mathematics at Merton College, Oxford and later Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He met his wife Marion in Oxford, and married her in 1957. Later he went to London University where he took an external degree in Astronomy, Physics and Applied Maths in 1958.

His first book was The Measure of the Universe: a History of Modern Cosmology (1965), which was praised as "a virtually complete history of modern cosmology". Not long after he started studying medieval science as he had been appointed librarian and assistant curator of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. He was appointed Professor of History of Philosophy and the Exact Sciences at the University of Groningen, Netherlands in 1977, where he stayed until his retirement in 1999. North was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985. He wrote two books on mediaeval scientist and mathematician Richard of Wallingford. He was also briefly a member of the British Astronomical Association in the 1950s.

North was diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and died on 31 October 2008.

Born in 1893 and educated at Bedford School, North became Chief Engineer for Claude Graham-White of the Grahame-White Aviation Co. Ltd., before the onset of World War I. This was a very responsible post for a young man in a young company within a fledgling and vital industry. He moved on in 1915 to become superintendent of the aviation department of Austin Motor Company. In 1917 he joined Boulton Paul in Norwich and commenced his long association with the company and its aircraft division, Boulton Paul Aircraft. Mr North rose to the position of managing director of Boulton Paul Aircraft and was also the company’s chief engineer. He retired in 1954.

During North’s time with Boulton Paul he was involved in the design of many aircraft, not least the Overstrand, Sidestrand, Defiant and the R101 airship, of which the company built the hull.

In 1941 North was Vice President of the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC). He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in May 1961 and he made CBE in 1962.

John Dudley North died on 13 January 1968 in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, aged 75.

John Gunder North (December 15, 1826 – September 19, 1872) was a Norwegian born ship builder in San Francisco. During his career, he built 273 hulls of all kinds with 53 bay and river steamers, including the famed paddle steamers Chrysopolis, Yosemite and Capital.