Personal
John Tinsley Oden was born on Christmas Day in 1936 to Sara and John Oden. Tinsley and his younger brother, Henry, were graced with parents who instilled in them a sense of honor, and appreciation of education and extraordinary work ethic.
Tinsley's mother spent her younger years as an English teacher while his father and grandfather each founded their own road construction materials companies. Their inspiration led Tinsley to graduate from Bolton High School in Alexandria with honors in 1955 and to complete a 5 year program in Civil Engineering at Louisiana State University in only 3 years, graduating first in his class. This enabled him to enter the graduate program at Oklahoma State University in 1959 and to complete his Masters and Ph.D. programs in only three years with a perfect 4.0, finishing at the age of only 25. After a year of teaching at Oklahoma State University, Tinsley decided to gain industrial experience as a Senior Research Engineer at the General Dynamics Corporation in Forth Worth, Texas. During his tenure at General Dynamics he met his future wife, Barbara Smith. Shortly after his departure to again enter academia, at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, he and Barbara were married in 1965. Their children, Walker and Lee were born in 1970 and 1972 during the Huntsville years.
The high intensity of scientific activity in Huntsville, the center of the nation space program, provided a fertile field for Tinsley's professional work for the next 9 years. In 1973, the Odens moved to Austin seeking new challenges and certainly they have been blessed with a generous, friendly, and supportive environment here at the University of Texas at Austin.