Yellott, John I.

John Ingle Yellott was born in Bel Air, Maryland to Dr. John I. and Mildred Walker (Nelson) Yellott on October 25, 1908. He was one of five children, including Kinlock Nelson, Mary Trail (Yellott) Denny McNitt, Fenton Grace (Yellott) Boogher, and Elaine (Yellott) Paine. He was twice married, first to Judith Mitchell Williams in 1934 and second to Barbara (Leslie) Jordan in 1951.

Yellott earned his Bachelor's (1931) and Master's (1933) degrees from John Hopkins University and began his career as an educator, teaching mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester, New York (1933-1934) and at the Stevens Institute of Technology (1934-1940). Yellott moved to the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1940, where he served as the Chairman of Mechanical Engineering (1940-1943) and as the Director of the Institute of Gas Technology (1943-1945).

Yellott moved to Arizona in 1951 and helped to found the Association for Applied Solar Energy in Phoenix in 1954. He went on to develop a graduate program in solar energy at Arizona State University and founded John Yellott Engineering Associated in 1958. Yellott died in Phoenix on December 27, 1986.