Former Earlham Professor Dale Noyd died on January 11, 2007. Current Earlham faculty member Mic Jackson offers this tribute:

Dale Noyd changed my life.

In the spring of 1985 I visited Earlham to interview for a position in the Mathematics Department. Professor Bill Fishback picked me up at the Dayton airport, and on the drive back to Earlham asked me whether I knew a ''Dale Noyd.'' I sat straight up in my seat, looked intently at Bill and said, ''Do you mean Captain Noyd?'' Bill, a bit surprised by my strong reaction and use of military terminology, said that was probably correct and told me that my Captain Noyd was now Dale Noyd, a Psychology Professor at Earlham. During that visit, Dale and I were able to meet and discuss an event that had been very important for both of us.

When I entered the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1965, I had never heard of Vietnam. However, by the end of my first year, I was getting letters from a high school classmate who was seeing heavy combat in Vietnam with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. I assumed our country was doing what was necessary to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. In the first semester of my second year, I was fortunate to have Captain Noyd as my instructor for Introduction to Psychology. Captain Noyd had the reputation as a very good teacher. But more importantly, at least to young cadets who had visions of flying some of the best aircraft in the world, he had been an F100 Super Saber pilot before being assigned to the Academy. He was a ''red hot fighter jock'' in our language. He loved flying and the Air Force, and intended to make both his career. His class was my favorite that semester.

One day during the following semester, our Superintendent (comparable to a college president) called an emergency meeting of the Cadet Wing (all 2000 students). During that meeting, he explained that Captain Noyd had been forced to leave his position on the faculty because he was a coward, unwilling to accept a combat assignment to Vietnam. I was shocked by the Superintendent's words, turned to the cadet beside me and whispered, ''Captain Noyd is no coward.'' Those were the first ''heretical'' words this young man from a conservative family in the Midwest had ever uttered, and those words initiated a personal journey that eventually led me out of the Air Force and to a career as a professor at a small Quaker liberal arts college.

I heard no more about Captain Noyd for the next 18 years, although I often thought about the bright young pilot who had forsaken a promising career because he understood, and acted on that understanding before any other Air Force officer, that our involvement in Vietnam was wrong.

During my meeting with Dale in the spring of 1985, he told me that the he had discreetly asked for another assignment because he believed that the United States military should not be involved in Vietnam. He did not want to destroy his career as an Air Force pilot and was willing to volunteer for even the most hazardous assignment, but he insisted that he could not take part in an unjust conflict. Since he was the first Air Force officer to refuse assignment to Vietnam, the Air Force felt obligated to make an example of him to discourage other officers from doing the same. He was court martialed and convicted for his ''refusal to obey a lawful order.'' The night before he was to go to Fort Leavenworth to literally ''break rocks'' for a year, his ACLU lawyer found a statement in the Uniform Code of Military Justice that prevented him from having to do ''hard time.'' But it did not negate his felony conviction. Dale also told me that two upper class cadets had voluntarily spoken on his behalf at the court marshal, risking their own careers. He was surprised and saddened to hear me recall that the Superintendent had named him as a coward.

In 1969, Dale was hired by Earlham even though he was a convicted felon. Earlham was proud, and fortunate, to have him on our faculty until 1988.

I am thankful that he stood up for what was right, but Dale Noyd paid dearly for his insight and courage.

Thank you, Captain Noyd.

Michael Bee (Mic) Jackson
Professor of Mathematics
Earlham College
Cadet Squadron 02
Class of 1969
United States Air Force Academy