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David Jack, B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.E., F.Inst.P., (1896-1975) was born and spent his early years in Caithness. He attended school in Thurso and went of Edinburgh University where his student life was interrupted two years of war service during the First World War as a Signaller in the Royal Garrison Artillery. He studied Arts and Science concurrently and graduated MA with first class honours in Mathematics and BSc with special distinction in Natural Philosophy on the same day in 1920. He was for four years Assistant under Professor Barkla in the Department of Natural Philosophy of the University of Edinburgh. He then spent a year at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. In 1925 he returned to Scotland and to St Andrews as Carnegie Teaching Fellow and remained there until he retired as Reader in 1963. His PhD was awarded by St Andrews in 1928 for his research in Spectroscopy.

Within the University he served on General Council, in particular on the Business and Ordinances committees and was elected as an Assessor of the General Council to the University Court in 1946, the first full-time lecturer to serve on Court. He became a member of Senatus in 1955 and later acted as Convenor of its Post-Graduate Scholarships Committee. In 1957 he was elected the first non-Professorial Dean of the Faculty of Science.

He was a member of the Madras Endowment Trust, and the Kirk Session of Hope Park Church, as well as a leading member of the St Andrews Preservation Trust, many of his photographs illustrating its publications. He and his wife were known for their hospitality and welcome and he was widely respected as teacher, counsellor and friend.