UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #343
MARSHALL, JR., W. ROBERT

MARSHALL, W. Robert, Jr. (1916-1988)
Graduate Student; Professor of Chemical Engineering; Dean of College of Engineering; Director of University-Industry Research Program
At UW: 1938-1941; 1947-1988

Interviewed: 1984	
Interviewer: Laura Smail
Length: 1.5 hours

Background; Coming to UW; Chemical Engineering Department; Olaf Hougen; Research in 1940s.

Interview Session (May 21, 1984): Digital File

[Note: Original interview was recorded on two tapes.]

Tape 1/Side 1

Time	Keywords

00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction. 

00:00:23	Question: You were born in Canada, what were father’s and mother’s occupation and education? Answer: Education of parents.  Father born in Canada; in newspaper business.  Mother, a Barnham, was a nurse in Syracuse. They met in Syracuse. 

00:01:47	William Marshall born in 1916 in Calgary, Alberta.  Moved to Vancouver; then to Chicago in 1924 where he had most of his schooling until 2nd year of high school at San High. Also lived in Greenville, Michigan during the depression where his father worked in sales and marketing at the Gibson Refrigerator Company.

00:02:58	Influence of teacher at San High.  Interest in mathematics began.

00:03:58	Graduated in 1934.  Higher education new to his family, he was encouraged by a teacher to proceed with education.  Received scholarship and attended Armor Institute of Technology in 1934.

00:04:45	Question: Why did you choose Armor Tech? Answer: High school teacher knew a member of the trustees. Followed teacher’s advice. 

00:05:05	He wanted career in chemical engineering; a new field in 1934 (founded in 1908). Not many chemical engineers in the U.S. 

00:05:57	Question: Were your parents pleased to have you attend college? Answer: Very pleased, though financing college was a difficulty, even with scholarship. Both Marshall and his sister worked. 

00:06:25	NYA (National Youth Administration) period.  He learned English by grading colleague's papers. Learned German as a required course for engineering, and Latin in high school. 

00:08:03	1937 Prof. Hougen taught at Armor Tech after leaving Madison. Changed careers of Marshall and others. He was the one who suggested graduate school to Marshall. Was interviewed and offered a job at Dupont, but they understood the value of graduate work. 

00:09:41	1941 WM accepted a position at Dupont. 

00:09:49	Attended UW Madison Roomed for three years with widow of mechanical engineering professor Mac. Lived on E. Johnson Difference in campus during his days as a graduate student at Madison. Different kind of graduate school before war and explosion of science and industry.

00:12:43	Budget for chemical engineering department $100/yr. Spent very frugally.

00:12:58	Telephones removed from campus.

00:13:38	F. Ellis Johnson, Dean of College when WM graduate student. Not much contact with graduate students. Importance of health to Johnson.

00:14:30	Students not aware of politics of college, nor of damage done by Johnson. Considering removing shops from Mechanical Engineering building. 

00:17:13	Johnson's intent to upgrade Engineering College.

00:18:18	Research done starting in 1920`s brought about great success of chemical engineering at Madison. Surprising given the low level of research in engineering generally at the time. 

00:19:16	Former UW student, Allen Covern--research done at Dupont. Covern and Hougen had worldwide success for their books written on chemical engineering education. Chemical engineering closely tied to chemistry. 

00:20:59	Hougen's great contribution: translate physical chemistry to chemical engineering processes, equipment design.

00:22:08	Marshall's impression of Hougen at Armor Tech.: he was a natural genius, great sense of humor, intelligent, humble, humane, willing to help any student. Ability to translate physical thing into mathematical terms, develop much more broadly than simple beginning in books. Rapport with students. 

00:25:29	Marshall as Hougen's graduate student. Playing golf. Hougen's old chemical engineering research lab. 

00:27:54		Only five graduate students in chemical engineering.

00:28:05		Talks about the chemical engineering laboratories. Research very different from today. Rather crude compared to advanced technologies – precise instruments, computers, glassware. Developing basic engineering data.  Approximate measurements, hard to imagine that was called research. War caused a change in research, world upside down, dramatic advances.   

00:31:13	Minor in Physics; classes he took; Professors he had – Ingersoll, March. Chemical Engineering courses not provided at Armor. 

00:32:43	Research and publishing. Novel mathematical analysis of how moisture absorbs on desiccants--done for National Research Council for war effort. 

00:34:16	Worked on drying of solids. Led research interests of atomization, spray drying, freeze drying. 

00:36:14	Went to Wilmington after received degree.

00:36:24	Question: Life of chemical engineering student. Answer: Lab in building with experimental equipment. 1930s-40s work would look elementary, areas that had never been explored. Work gets more difficult, measurements more accurate, instrumentation more expensive.  

00:38:43	Early years of research established principles. 

00:38:56	Hougen's contribution was an insight to precision of the earlier principles.  Correlations used in preparing design charts.

00:40:28	Drying/Mass transfer. Pioneering thesis on pack beds for drying. Breakthroughs, did not know potential of research at the time. Advocates continued research. 

00:42:47	Question: Other members of faculty equally interested in research? Answer: O. P. Watts--pioneering work in electrochemistry.  Kowalke--not as much on research.
00:44:30	Research seminars on engineering practice, principally in chemical engineering. Little research in engineering.

00:45:58	Civil engineering research in early days concentrated on study of performance of equipment.

00:46:37	Chemical engineering is development of new principles. Often, engineering research was testing of equipment.

00:48:05	Simple, tranquil life.

00:48:56	Research Assistantship as graduate student.

00:49:15	Pentagon, social group for wives. Suppers/social events with faculty. Discusses professors, contrasts Hougen and Kowalke. 

00:53:36	Years at Dupont.  Industrial mecca for chemical engineers.  Engineering experiment station in Wilmington.  Technical Division--group of prominent engineers. Humbled to go to work for Dupont.

00:55:10	Dupont--chemical company for all aspects of the war effort.  1942 pilot plant distilling water; tests in New Mexico.

00:57:48	Dupont good company to work for, good management; safety number one concern.

00:59:12	What attracted him to campus after Dupont: management and organization changed at Dupont, lots of uncertainty. He was attracted to the academic environment. Income supplemented by consulting work. Married with two children by the time he moved to Madison. 

01:02:20	Warren Stewart and Bob Bird brought to Madison by Hougen.

01:03:49	Lightfoot attracted by development of biochemical engineering, by Hougen. 

01:06:05	Hougen's objectives about engineering program development clear cut.

01:07:29 	Kirk specialist in organic chemical engineering processes. Leadership in department.

01:11:05	Hougen left chairmanship to become science advisor to ambassador to Sweden.  Chairmanship taken over by Prof. Ragatz.

01:11:50	Bird became next chairman (around 1964).

01:13:10	WM had graduate students until `62.

01:13:18	Departmental meetings. Regularly scheduled meetings. Became more necessary as more rules and regulations came up. Differing opinions on subject areas. Departmental dinners added as a way to discuss direction and ideas.

01:17:13	Marshall was Executive Director of Engineering Experiment Station from 1953 until he became Dean. Working with School of Education. 

01:17:24	As head of Station WM had authority to make tenure tracts, he made three: 1) Duffie; 2) WM’s teacher from Chicago High School; 3) Coberly.

01:19:23	1954 Farrington Daniels - research in solar energy for underdeveloped countries; money from Rockefeller.

01:20:02	Duffie from Navy worked on solar energy research. Did a great deal before solar energy became widespread.

01:21:34	Space Age changed course of solar energy research.

01:21:47	Duffie became director of UIR in `66; then to graduate school to be associate dean.  Voted in to be member of Chemical Engineering Department.

01:22:42	Tenure in departments. 

01:25:35	Hughes next appointment by WM; Hughes had good reputation.

01:27:23	Uniform agreement on appointments.  Stressed more today than `50-60s.  Departmental consensus harder to get today because larger, less homogeneous.

01:30:45	Expansion of technology-computers. Expansion of fields of mechanical engineering, modelers, kineticists, practical engineers. Chairman must orchestrate difference in viewpoint.

01:31:58	Departments look for quality when making appointments. Strong virtue of department – looking for strong individual.

01:33:03	1947 departure from Dupont, arrival at Madison. Inherited graduate students. 1948 – career at Madison began again.

01:35:33	End of Interview Session. 

END OF INTERVIEW #343