22 Facts About Jimmy LuValle

James Ellis LuValle was an American athlete and scientist.

Jimmy LuValle won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 1936 Summer Olympics, and was an accomplished chemist and founder of the Graduate Students Association at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jimmy LuValle was born on November 10,1912, in San Antonio, TX.

Jimmy LuValle's family lived for a while in Washington, DC, before moving to Los Angeles, CA while LuValle was in elementary school.

Jimmy LuValle competed in track and field at LA Polytechnic High School, while working as a page for the Los Angeles Public Library.

Jimmy LuValle enrolled at UCLA in 1931, turning down athletic scholarships to the University of Southern California and the University of Notre Dame.

Jimmy LuValle did not have an athletic scholarship, given UCLA did not award track scholarships back then.

Jimmy LuValle paid his way through school with a Regents' Scholarship and a job in the chemistry lab.

Jimmy LuValle made friends with future Nobel Laureate Glenn T Seaborg who was his teaching assistant for one class.

Jimmy LuValle graduated Phi Beta Kappa in chemistry in June 1936, having had a straight-A average.

Jimmy LuValle won the Jake Gimball Award for most outstanding all-around senior.

Jimmy LuValle won the 400 meters at the Western Olympic Trials with a time of 46.3, his lifetime best.

Jimmy LuValle came up behind American Archie Williams and Godfrey Brown of the United Kingdom.

Jimmy LuValle returned to UCLA in the fall of the same year to pursue a masters in chemistry and physics.

Jimmy LuValle observed that graduate students were not interacting much with people outside their department, and that there needed to be an organization to bring them together.

Jimmy LuValle took up the issue directly with Vern Knudsen, dean of the Graduate Council of the UC Academic Senate.

Jimmy LuValle was the first African American to receive a Ph.

Jimmy LuValle taught from 1940 to 1941 at Fisk University.

Jimmy LuValle returned to Kodak as Senior Chemist, which he served as until 1953.

Jimmy LuValle later worked at SMC Corporation and Smith Corona Marchant before settling down as Laboratory Administrator for the chemistry department at Stanford University in 1975.

Jimmy LuValle died January 30,1993, while on vacation in Te Anau, New Zealand.

In 2016, the 1936 Olympic journey of the eighteen Black American athletes, including Jimmy LuValle, was documented in the film Olympic Pride, American Prejudice.