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Brigadier General
Orwyn Sampson
Permanent Professor 1980–1992
B.S., University of California, Los Angeles
M.S., University of California, Los Angeles
Ph.D., University of Oregon
Orwyn “O” Sampson, the Academy’s 37th Permanent Professor, was born in 1937 in Van Nuys and raised in Canoga Park, California. He graduated from UCLA in 1959 with a major in Physical Education (Kinesiology). At UCLA, O was a competitive gymnast and the Cadet Commander of the AFROTC detachment. Following his commissioning in 1959, O took an educational delay to pursue his Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology, which he earned in 1960. He entered active duty as a Personnel Services Officer at Nellis AFB, NV. He came to the Air Force Academy as an Assistant Gymnastics Coach and Instructor of Physical Education, 1962–1964, during which time he taught skills classes, supervised cadet intramural athletics, and developed physical education standards. Selected for a PhD program, he attended the University of Oregon from 1964 to 1966; his degree was awarded in 1967. From 1966–1971, O again served in the Academy’s Athletics Department as Gymnastics Coach and Assistant Professor. An expert in the areas of physical fitness and exercise science, he pioneered the development of the Human Performance Laboratory and the William S. Stone Cardiopulmonary Laboratory, and improved the Physical Aptitude Examination and the Cadet Physical Fitness Test. In 1971–1972 he was Chief, Special Services at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam, where he was instrumental in greatly increasing the number and quality of facilities and programs for fitness, recreation, and morale. He returned to the Academy in 1972 and played a major role in the development of the academic discipline of physiology/biology. The subject was first in the Department of Life and Behavioral Sciences, then in Chemistry and Physiology, then in Chemistry and Biological Sciences. Finally, in 1980 the discipline was anchored in the stand-alone Department of Biology, with O Sampson as the Permanent Professor and Department Head. As Head, he was the driving force behind the expansion of the department into new teaching and laboratory facilities specifically designed for the discipline. He took sabbatical assignments at the School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, TX, and the Cal Tech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. At Brooks, he became a certified Air Force Aerospace Physiologist and returned later as an instructor in that field. During his two-year sabbatical at JPL, 1984–1986, he studied and contributed to the understanding of the scientific assessment of body composition and how bone, muscle, and fat are affected by weightlessness. He was the Chair of the Basic Sciences Division from 1986 until his retirement in 1992. Throughout his 25 years of service at the Academy, O was a central figure in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He has always been out front and willing to share his thoughts and feelings about freedom, service to country, and the privilege of being an American. In retirement, he is using his life and professional education experience in a variety of areas to include teaching, research, and, most enthusiastically, in the creative area of inventing.