Staten stayed on for only one semester. In the fall of 1948, Charles Ammerman, Jr., another DePauw graduate, was added to the department staff. Ammerman, who had a master's degree from Washington University, at first taught only the introductory labs. But by the spring of 1950 he assumed the lecture duties for the Survey Course; at this point, one might argue that physics was now a legitimate three-man department at DePauw.

In December 1949 O.H. Smith received a very special Christmas present-- he had been chosen to receive the 1949 Oersted Medal in physics, an award given annually by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in recognition of "notable contributions to the teaching of physics." Smith was happy but surprised; in all his years at DePauw, he had not published a single article in a professional journal. Apparently, his grateful students (a list of whom reads like a "Who's Who" of physics in the ë40s) had made their voices heard as they sang their praises of Professor Smith over the years.

The Oersted Medal was presented to Smith in a ceremony held at Columbia University in February 1950. Over 20 of his former students-- including Giddings, Furry, Whitmer, and DuBridge (then president of Cal Tech)- were at the awards banquet. In addition to the medal and a certificate, O.H. was given a bound volume of congratulatory letters written by more than 50 former students from Cornell and DePauw. From the tone and content of these letters it is clear that O.H. Smith was a man (teacher, adviser, friend) who was deeply loved by his students. 

Nine years later, Lee DuBridge played a part in the second major teaching award received by Smith in the '50s. DuBridge had been tabbed for the annual Golden Key award as a citizen "who has contributed significantly to the national welfare." A second Golden Key was to be awarded to the teacher who had most influenced his career; DuBridge immediately picked his physics professor at Cornell, O.H. Smith. On February 4, 1959 DuBridge and Smith were each presented with a Golden Key in a ceremony at the national meeting of the American Association of School Administrators in Atlantic City.

Smith retired with the rank of professor emeritus of physics in June 1952. But his teaching career was not nearly over. Every summer, his phone rang several times with requests for his services from colleges all over the United States. He accepted appointments at five of these colleges during the '50s, finally returning to DePauw to teach part-time from 1958 to 1966. When he made plans in the spring of 1966 to move to Washington State to live with his daughter Marjorie and her husband, a reception and dinner were organized in his honor. O.H. Smith said his farewell to DePauw at the April 1966 banquet, surrounded by scores of friends and colleagues. Seven years later news of his death saddened the entire physics community, which had lost one of its most inspirational teachers.

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