Clarence N. Hickman

Clarence Nichols Hickman (1889 to 1981) was a physicist, born on a farm near Lizton, Indiana, who worked on rockets with Robert Goddard. After teaching school and taking a Bachelor of Arts in physics and mathematics at Winona College, he began a master's degree at Clark University in 1917, where he met Goddard, then head of the physics department, and focused on rocket development. After graduating he worked with Goddard at the Mount Wilson Observatory on rockets intended for use in the First World War, and lost several fingers in the explosion of a rocket charge. Working alongside Goddard in 1918, he helped develop a man-portable recoilless antitank rocket launcher, later known as the bazooka, and he guided that development to completion during the Second World War. In the 1920s he improved player pianos for the American Piano Company, and he is also known as the Father of Scientific Archery.