College Instructors

The second semester of my senior year I continued with Chemical Engineering Principles III, organic chemistry, chemical engineering economics, electrical engineering and I believe some other courses. It was the heaviest scholastic load I ever carried (19 hours of credit) and I did well, achieving a B in organic chemistry but A’s in all the rest.

In the summer session I completed an hour of speech that I needed, the first half of physical chemistry, a course in differential equations and an introductory course in meteorology. The reason for taking the course in meteorology was that, although I had accepted the position that Shell had offered, I was considering the advisibility of entering the armed services, the idea being that making a choice of what service I would enter I might do better than if I were simply drafted. To this end I thought of enlisting in a naval program for training in meteorology at the University of Chicago. I would have received a commission as an ensign (I suppose).

My recollection has been that I had been assured of being accepted but in reviewing the various items that I had retained from that time I don’t find any specific indication of acceptance. What I did keep was the completed application which in the end I never submitted.

One of the factors that kept me from pursuing a career in the military was the reaction of Professor Arnold when I mentioned to him what I was considering. He was standing behind his desk in his office in the rear of the chemistry building (a ground-floor position) and I was facing him. He said in his inimitable “why can’t you do better than that” way, “Why would you want to do that?” I’m sure that what he said on that occasion influenced my decision although it might not have been the decisive reason. In the end I decided to take my chances with Shell.

Initially I rather disliked Arnold, but by the end of my training at Iowa I valued him as a teacher and mentor — considerably more than Professor Olin who was head of the department. He (Arnold) was a gentler edition of Uncle Carl, being less caustic in his words and demeanor but he could certainly let his opinion of your position or actions be crystal clear. He was an individual who did not restrict his activities to engineering or teaching matters. I well recall seeing him in the parking lot behind the chemistry building tinkering with the engine on his Ford sedan.

And I remember the story told me by someone in the chemistry or chemical engineering department, whether a student, a teaching assistant or a member of the faculty I don’t recall. It seems that Arnold had a dental problem and went to see a dentist. When the dentist indicated what he proposed to do, Arnold demurred, went to the library in the dental college and decided what he thought should be done. The dentist disagreed, so Arnold scouted around until he found a dentist who would do what Arnold wanted. Whether the correct procedure was followed the account of the incident doesn’t say.

When I left Iowa after graduation I had no further contact with Arnold until after I was transferred to the Bay Area, actually until in the early 1950s when I was rooming at the Wilsons in El Cerrito. He had left the teaching profession and Iowa and had taken a job with Chevron in Richmond. Rumor had it that his acerbic behavior had led to his leaving, whether by request or not I don’t know.

He was living with his family in Albany and I have a Christmas card from him showing a photograph of his family, really an attractive group. However it wasn’t long before he left Chevron,a gain whether by request or not I don’t know. Anyway from that point on his career as an engineer essentially ended and apparently his wife divorced him, perhaps for non-support.

I could never figure out why his life developed as it did, perhaps there was some personality defect. All I am certain of is that during my schooling he was an excellent teacher, and he certainly played a part in a decision that was crucial to my life.

The instructors I had at Iowa other than Olin and Arnold in Chemical Engineering ranged in character from colorful and eccentric through complete conventionality and from being good through merely being competent to being close to idiotic.

Among those being competent but conventional were the two instructors in the mechanical engineering department — in mechanics of solids and of materials — and I don’t even recall their names. This was also true of the electrical engineering professor, although he was marginally competent. Eversole in physical chemistry and Kalinske in physical metallurgy were good. The beginning German teacher was entertaining, the one in technical German stodgy. I had a course in technical writing under a teacher, also nameless, who was an oddball to the point of being idiotic. I can remember mystically [?] analyzing sentences on the blackboard as to their effectiveness and appropriateness.

The two teachers in drawing were Highee and Russ. Highee taught the theory part of the course and was a crusty elderly man who seemed to regard young engineering students of requiring indoctrination of “old-time” engineering. Russ was the real drafting instructor, good but conventional.

The two professors I had in differential equations and introductory meteorology during the summer session that concluded my college studies are not only dim pictures to me.

By far the most colorful figure was “Uncle Charlie” Raiford, the organic professor. He was elderly and widowed and his life was organic chemistry. His lectures were held in a large hall in the chemistry building and he used a long bamboo stick to point out the points he had inscribed on the backboard. Often he would question students using the bamboo stick pointing it at the hapless victim.