A Brief History Of The Chemistry Department

1949-1959

The First Peak and Beyond

Alfred P. Mills

The number of faculty members suffered a net loss of one as Davis, Moffat, and Wollman left and were replaced by Instructor Alfred P. Mills and Assistant Professor Richard C. Hall. Hall would leave in 1954, but Mills would remain with the department (except for a leave of absence for military duty, 1952-1953) until his death near the end of 1991, shortly before his scheduled retirement. Both Hall and Mills appear in a photograph of the 1949-50 faculty. As for changes in faculty rank, Schultz was promoted to Associate Professor and Yolles to Instructor.

Chemistry faculty, 1949-50
Standing, left to right: Schultz, Yolles, Sickels, Ellis, Tebeau, Cook
Seated: Huddle, Mills, Steinbach, Hall

Schultz describes the change in slope in the fourth newsletter:

In the same UM CHEM Schultz summarizes the number of undergraduate and graduate degrees granted in the years flanking the midcentury mark: from 1945-50, 184 BS and 9 MS; from 1951-55, 205 BS and 28 MS. He also describes a significant event in the development of the department. Since 1947 the chemistry department had sought recognition of its professional BS major by the American Chemical Society (ACS). In 1950 this approval was granted and the University of Miami Chemistry Department became one of 197 throughout the nation with ACS recognition.

Also at this time the university underwent its first major change of administration. In 1950, with a sense of failing stamina after almost a quarter century as leader of the university, President Ashe asked the board of trustees to consider his replacement. The board responded by working on the finances of his retirement, but without naming a successor. In early November, 1951, Ashe suffered a serious stroke. Still the board took no significant action.

Ashe died on December 6, 1952. More than a month later, January 12, 1953, the board of trustees named Vice-President Jay F. W. Pearson, a zoologist, as the University of Miami's second president. In his role as vice-president, Pearson had worked closely with Ashe for many years; his accession to the presidency produced little change in the operation of the university.

Similarly, little change occurred in the chemistry department during the next few years. Walter O. Walker, who had left the department in 1936 for an industrial position, returned as a faculty member in 1950. (In 1932 he succeeded Sieplein as head of the department.) During the next year, 1951, two long-lasting modifications went into effect. For the university, the name of the college changed from the College of Liberal Arts to the current College of Arts and Sciences. Within the department, all chemistry courses received numbers, titles and descriptions that have lasted, with little further modification, to the present (2005).

The following three photographs illustrate the relative stability of the department in the early 1950's. Of the chemistry faculty listed in one or more of the four Bulletins from 1949-50 through 1952-53, only Ione Blackburn and Seymore Yolles do not appear below. Blackburn is listed for the last time in the chemistry section of the 1950-51 Bulletin, then moves to the university's medical research unit as a research assistant. Yolles appears in the 1950-51 Bulletin, disappears the following year, reappears in 1952-53 with a Ph.D. from North Carolina, then disappears forever.

Chemistry faculty, 1950-51
Standing, left to right: Walker, Ellis, Sickels, Mills, Huddle, Cook
Seated: Schultz, Hall, Steinbach, Tebeau

Chemistry faculty of the 1950-1953 era


Standing: Huddle, Cook, Walker, Hall, Sickels (seated on desktop)
Seated: Steinbach

Tebeau, Schultz, Mills, Ellis, Steinbach

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Stability and Anticipation

In addition to Mills, who arrived in 1949 as an Instructor, the Bulletins of the 1950's show the addition of 11 faculty, with their year of arrival and initial rank:

Wilfred (Bill) J. Badgley and Jerome G. Morse, 1952, each as Assistant Professor
Henry Hubinger, 1954, Instructor
Curtis E. (Gene) Delchamps and Ludwig Luft, 1955, each as Assistant Professor
Louis E. Jennings, 1956, Instructor
Arthur G. Keenan, 1957, Associate Professor
Nathaniel Remes, 1957, Assistant Professor
Earl L. Brill, 1958, Instructor
J. Arthur Lewis, 1959, Associate Professor
Frank D. Popp, 1959, Assistant Professor

Curtis E. (Gene) Delchamps	Henry Hubinger	Arthur G. Keenan

Except for those noted above, the 1952-53 Bulletin shows no gains or losses of faculty. Schultz and Sickels have been promoted to Professor; Hall to Associate Professor; Mills to Assistant Professor; and Yolles reappears momentarily as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry.

The following year shows no changes in rank, but both Badgley and Morse arrive as noted above. In addition, Mills is on leave for military duty; Steinbach now has the added title of Director of Summer Sessions; and Walker is both Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Industrial Chemical Research Laboratory. Yolles is gone. The next several years brought no significant changes other than additional duties for Walker in 1954-55 as the new Dean of the Division of Research and Industry, and the departure of Morse in 1955.

The 1950's continue and close with a 13-member department consisting of:

Badgley, promoted to Associate Professor
Delchamps, Assistant Professor
Hubinger, promoted to Assistant Professor
Jennings, Instructor
Keenan, Associate Professor
Lewis, Associate Professor
Mills, promoted to Associate Professor and now Director of Radioisotopes Laboratory
Popp, Assistant Professor
Schultz, Professor
Sickels, Professor
Steinbach, Professor, Chair of the Department, and Director of Summer Sessions
Tebeau, Professor
Walker, Professor, Director of the Industrial Chemical Research Laboratory and Dean of the Division of Research and Industry.

New to the faculty in 1959 was Frank D. Popp, an organic chemist active in research, who arrived as an Assistant Professor but left in 1962 for another academic position. Popp's arrival symbolizes the anticipation of departmental growth in a new direction: introduction of the doctoral program with increasing emphasis on graduate research. Founded in 1926 as a teaching department and remaining focused on undergraduate teaching for two decades -- until the introduction of the M.S. degree in 1947 -- the Chemistry Department now looked forward to its next major advance, the introduction of the Ph.D. degree and the flourishing of research.

The department's entry into the doctoral program was part of a more general expansion into doctoral-level programs throughout the university. Although a dean of the graduate school had been appointed as early as 1942, sustained development of graduate programs had to wait until after the war, when a Committee on Graduate Study was created. In 1957 this Committee was transformed into a Graduate Council, and a Graduate Faculty came into existence. The university was on its way.

That same year, 1957, saw intense planning begin within the department. The document "Facts, Figures, and Doctoral Training Planning", cited near the beginning of the 1945-1949 segment of this history, summarizes the department's status, philosophy, and plans. Critical to the success of any doctoral program would be the ability of the faculty to originate, direct, and publish the research of graduate students. The status of the mid-50's was not promising. The average number of papers published in research journals over the professional careers of each of the 12 faculty listed in the summary was less than four. Three faculty had never published a research paper; two others had published one each. Schultz led the group with a total of 15, more than twice the number of the next most active faculty. Clearly, vigorous hiring of faculty -- research-active faculty -- would have to resume (and had already resumed with Popp). The relative stability of the plateau was about to end and another climb to a higher peak was about to begin.