Junior Year at the University of Iowa

My first year at the university was probably the least satisfying of my school years. I had never been away from my parental home for any lengthy period of time, and being in an unfamiliar environment without the family and community contacts that I was accustomed to made me rather homesick at times. I was certainly in contact via letters etc. which helped a lot. Also I would send my laundry home for my mother to do, and with its return she would invariably include some cookies or other goodies. This practice of mailing laundry home was a rather usual one for the students — one could purchase a reusable fabric-covered box for the purpose (as I recall at one of the school supply stores east of the college).

I lived the first year at the Quadrangle dormitory which was on the west side of the Iowa river that ran through the campus. Most of the classes (all of mine) were in buildings on the east side of the river, so there was a regular series of walks each day between the dorm and my classes. The Quadrangle had been constructed by the Navy for use by the military in World War I and was the older of the two men’s dorms. The newer one, Hillcrest, was more expensive to stay in.

During my first year I had a single room — I guess I was hesitant about getting a roommate “out of the blue.” I ate at the Quadrangle cafeteria — having a good-sized dinner and then eating sandwiches in my room for breakfast and lunch. You were not supposed to eat in your room but students, such as I, who were on a restricted budget, did.

For meals and food I paid cash from the checks I cashed at the cafeteria cashier, drawn on my father’s account. I think my father used my savings from the work I did for my uncle Carl during summers etc. to offset these checks. I was never really sure as to what he did, but the bonds or whatever form the savings were in had disappeared by the time I finished school so I guess that is what came of them. It’s curious I suppose but I never felt like asking him about the situation.

A couple of times when I needed money, as for transportation home at Christmas, I tried cashing a chec at one of the banks in Iowa City and was rebuffed. I don’t know what I finally did, perhaps went back and tried the cafeteria cashier.

I sort of recall going through the registration process the first time, and since I was transferring in with an odd assortment of credits my schedule was really a makeshift one and included such courses as freshman drawing and various junior courses in chemical engineering. I remember meeting crusty old Dr. Olin for the first time. He was the chairman of the department of chemical engineering. In his day I’m sure he was quite competent in his field but he was in my opinion well past his prime at the time,

As sort of a sideline he was in charge of the coal lab which did analyses on the coal that the university used in the power plant and he had spent a good part of his career in coal-related projects. When I say he was in charge of the coal lab, I do not mean day-to-day operation, but as its nominal head.

Several of the students doing the analyses later turned up as Shell employees — Ed Fisch and Mel Oldfather. Actually Mel was a graduated student and the individual in practical charge. Dr. Olin was a good acquaintance of one Sydney Kirkpatrick, who was editor of the magazine Chemical Engineering. So he used this magazine quite a bit in the Chemical Industries class he taught. Even then this magazine, though historically important in the field, was rapidly taking a back seat to the publications that the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and other engineering societies were publishing and Dr. Olin did not realize what was happening.

The real intellectual power in the department was Dr. Arnold, in his way another odd person, who was technically competent but flawed as to temperament in personal relations. He had a broader outlook on how engineering departments in industry functioned.

In a way I was amused by Dr. Olin’s opinion of me. In his Chemical Industries class I got a “B” ad his demeanor to me reflected this level of scholastic standing. His attitude changed subtly but markedly when I received an “A” in Arnold’s Industrial Stoichiometry class — which required much more in the way of calculation and analysis than did the Chemical Industries class which was largely descriptive in nature.

Because my first semester schedule was sort of odd, there was an oversight and the first semester of physical chemistry was somehow not included when it should have been. But when I registered for the second semester I took the second semester of physical chemistry out of order.

I enjoyed engineering drawing, perhaps it was the genesis of my later drawing and painting skills. I also had first-year German — not my favorite class — though the teacher was an interesting figure.