Presentation at a breakfast reception honoring emeritus faculty of the Penn State chemistry department, November 2006

2. EVAN PUGH
President
and
Professor of Chemistry,
1860 - 1864

3. “If this Institution is sustained as it should be; if its
EVAN PUGH
buildings are completed upon the original plan,
and it receives a reasonable support I have not the
slightest doubt that it could be made the best
Agricultural Institution in the world...
“Indeed, the entire character of our institutions; the
fundamental ideas of our people in regard to the
dignity of labor; our general mixing and
intermingling of all classes of society, and the
growing intelligence of our people, together with
the fact, that this is the greatest agricultural
community on the face of the earth – all enable us
to build up the best Agricultural Schools in the
world, and we must do it!
“We must do it in Pennsylvania! and I think,
gentlemen, that we will do it.”

4. GEORGE GILBERT
POND
Professor of Chemistry,
1888 – 1920
Dean of the School of
Natural Sciences,
1896 - 1920

5. “What do we teachers in the Department of
Chemistry live for? Why can they always be
GEORGE GILBERT
found at their respective posts, putting in more
hours per day, every one of them, than is often
POND
expected of any man in an industrial position?
Why does the gas so often burn in the laboratory
till after midnight to make possible the necessary
recording of the day’s work, or the material
preparation for the students who will come in on
the morrow?
“Is it for pay? Consult the salary roll!
“Is it for selfish glorification or the attainment of
personal ambitions?
“No, if you mean the narrow individual
satisfaction to be found in salaried promotions or
other forms of personal success. Yes, if you mean
the broader view, which pierces the veil of the
future, and sees successful men once students at
State, who, however much they may chafe under
college regulations now, will bye and bye turn
about and thank us from the bottom of their hearts,
for the personal interest which was taken in them
at College.”

7. FRANK WHITMORE
Dean of the College of
Chemistry and Physics
and
Professor of Chemistry,
1929 - 1947

8. FRANK WHITMORE
“You must remember there is a war on and
consequently the only important thing is your
work. I trust you are adapting a program which
many of the men are following here at State 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
“This runs as follows:
Sleep – 8 hours
Meals and walking to and from meals
and classes – 4 hours
Work – good honest work, not just
sitting in front of a book –
12 hours
Recreation – none
Exercise – see above.”

9. MARY WILLARD
Instructor
and
Professor of Chemistry,
1922 - 1964

10. “Chemistry is and always has been a man’s
MARY WILLARD
field....
“Yet aren’t there three women behind every man
in science; his wife, who tries to get him to the
laboratory properly fed, clothed, and in an
amiable frame of mind at a reasonable hour in
the morning; his secretary, who translates his
‘hieroglyphics; and edits his scientific papers so
that they will be acceptable for reports and
publications; and finally his laboratory assistant,
his girl Friday, who washed the glassware and
cleans up after the great experiment,
sympathizes with him on those experiments that
don’t come right and rejoices with him on those
that do.”

12. Available in the
Penn State
Bookstore
Hetzel Union Building