Immediately after Math and Physics split, Physics was left with four faculty members: Partlo, Longacre, Sermon and Service, though Capt. Service was still on leave having been in the Navy Reserve when World War II started.* By 1950 there were fourteen Physics faculty. In contrast to the hires of the 1920's, of the ten new hires, only half had their BS degree from MCMT, seven of the ten had at least one degree from another institution, seven of them had a Master’s degree when hired (the majority of those were from the University of Michigan) and one more received it shortly thereafter. The only degree beyond the Master's was Donald H. Baker's Ed.D. from Michigan State. D. O. "Doc" Wyble, hired by this time, later earned his PhD (in 1957) after an absence from campus to serve in the Navy and pursue his studies.

Growing to become a University

During the 1950's there was considerable growth on campus and an effort to formalize the graduate programs. Over a dozen new MS programs appeared across campus during this time including one in Engineering Physics and one in Physics. The latter was intended to rely heavily on a joint agreement with Argonne National Labs for research opportunities. The MS in Engineering Physics disappeared after 1960 and at the same time the Engineering Physics BS was renamed "Applied Physics."** A total of only about a half dozen students graduated with an Engineering Physics MS. The College's graduate programs had been under a Director up until 1960 when the graduate school was formed and Physics Professor Don Yerg became the first Graduate School Dean.

At the Sault campus, Professor of Physics Harry Crawford was hired and named director in 1954. Shortly after that a number of the physics faculty from the Houghton campus moved to the Sault campus. Crawford was instrumental in building and developing the Sault campus until his retirement in 1965, preparing the Sault campus to formally break away to become Lake Superior State University.

* By this time instructors were not routinely listed as faculty.

** The removal of "Engineering" from the name of the programs was apparently due to issues related to accreditation.

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