4
NEWS
EDITION
Vol. 8 , N o . 2 2
steady increase i n the size of the company's technical staff, i t has grown under the favorable influence of a very generous policy of the company in promoting its interests. Harold A. Levey, chairman of t h e Louisiana Section, was born The Midland Section is the most conveniently located for in N e w Orleans, La., October 14, 1889. All of h i s early educachemists in surrounding territory, especially Saginaw and B a y tion w a s received i n t h e public schools of h i s native city, after City, and while its territory is limited b y the charter to the county which he attended Tulane University. He graduated from t h e of Midland, the policy is now being pursued of inviting chemists latter in 1910 i n mechanical and electrical engineering. from other towns to participate in i t s activities. T h e present The following year h e taught physics and chemistry at t h e a c t i v e membership is about B o y s ' H i g h S c h o o l of N e w seventy, but the meetings are alOrleans. T h e next t w o years ways open t o all the technical were spent completing the s t u men i n the company's employ dent engineering course in meand t o visitors, and attendance chanical and electrical engineera t meetings i s usually twice that ing then offered by the Allisnumber. Among the activities Chalmers Co. at their Scranton, Pa., plant, a s well as West Allis,
Officers of the Louisiana Section
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Thomas Griswold, Jr. Harold A. Levey
Wis. H e then served a s assistant consulting electrical engineer with the firms of V a u g h n & Meyer and Thomas S. Watson Co., and also as assistant meHerbert O'Donnell chanical engineer with Charles H. Cahill, all of Milwaukee, Wis. In 1915 he completed the undergraduate work in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois. I n 1916 h e received the degree of master of science in chemistry from the same institution. Further graduate work was continued until h e left the university t o take u p industrial work in the research laboratories of Mariner & Hoskins, consulting chemical engineers, Chicago, 111. Following this he w a s made technical director in charge of development for the General Mfg. Co., Sioux City, Iowa, for t h e manufacture of cellulose acetate sheeting. During the war h e served with the Bureau of Aircraft Production i n charge of research work on cellulose acetate airplane dopes, being stationed a x the Bureau of Chemistry, Washington, D . C. In 1919 he returned t o N e w Orleans, where h e organized t h e American Products M f g . Co., of which he i s manager. He has since devoted all of his time to the development of automatic equipment for the manufacture of thin cellulose acetate sheeting by a continuous process. I n addition, Mr. Levey conducts a research laboratory devoted essentially to consulting service in connection with cellulose chemistry. Mr. Levey and his section are working toward t h e achievement of a unique and successful meeting of the national SOCIETY in N e w Orleans in April, 1932. Herbert O'Donnell, secretary of t h e Louisiana Section, was born i n N e w Orleans, L a . , M a y 17, 1896. H e received the degree of B . E . in chemical engineering from Tulane University in 1916. He started his career i n the sugar industry, and after two years of this work in Louisiana and Porto Rico as chemist and assistant superintendent found employment with t h e Southern Cotton Oil Co., a t Gretna, La., where he was employed both in the plant and t h e laboratory until 1922. In 1922 he received a n appointment as assistant chemist in the U . S. Appraiser's Laboratory in N e w Orleans, where he has been employed ever since. He was elected secretary of the Louisiana Section in 1926.
The Midland Section History The Midland Section was organized a t the instigation of William J . Hale, and granted a charter in 1919. The first chairman of the section was t h e l a t e Herbert H. Dow, president of the D o w Chemical Co., while Doctor Hale served in t h e capacity of councilor, which position he has filled continuously ever since. The Midland Section i s rather unique in that it is more or less isolated from other centers of chemical activity, and its membership has always been drawn chiefly from the personnel of the D o w Chemical C o . Consequently, i t s development h a s paralleled the expansion of that organization, and with the
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of the section for the past four years has been the offer of a cash prize t o local high-school students for the best essay in the group submitted for entry in the Lawrence F. Martin Prize Essay Contest. The growth of the section has been steady, and it is continuing its expansion with further increase in membership a s its goal. I n the ten years of i t s activity, fifty-two regular meetings have been held. Those who have contributed to its success, serving a s chairmen in the past, are: 1919-20 1921 1922 1923 1924
H. H. Dow E. O. Barstow Thos. Griswold, Jr. I. F. Harlow R. T. Sanford
1925 1926 1927 1928 1929-30
M. E. Putnam C. J. Strosacker W. H. D o w E. C. Britton Thos. Griswold, Jr
Officers Thomas Griswold, Jr., chairman of t h e Midland Section, was born a t Ashtabula, Ohio, September 2 9 , 1870. I n 1896 he was graduated from the Case School of Applied Science with a B . S . in civil engineering, and in 1897 accepted t h e position of chief engineer of the Dow Chemical Co., Midland. H e soon evolved into a chemical engineer, and until 1926 was the chief designer of the numerous plants of the D o w Co. Joining the company a t the time of its organization, he has been conspicuously identified with its development, contributing novel methods and apparatus for which he has been granted numerous patents, and supervising the application of engineering principles to the many problems which the organization has m e t and solved in the course of its growth. Recently he has been most actively engaged in organizing and directing the Patent Research Department of the D o w Chemical Co., and is a registered patent attorney in charge of t h e department. He manages t o find time to devote to the affairs of the local section, of which this is his second consecutive term as chairman. T h e section has been unusually active under the stimulus of his leadership. An ardent golfer, he is a charter member and active i n the Midland Country Club. H e is also a member of the Saginaw Club, and of the Saginaw Valley Torch Club, which he has served as president, a member of t h e American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Phi Delta Theta, T a u B e t a Pi, and Sigma X i . Lawrence F. Martin, secretary-treasurer of the Midland Section, is one of the newer members of the section and the D o w Chemical Co. organization. l i e was born in N e w Orleans, La., November 13, 1903, a n d was educated there at Tulane University, graduating with a B . S . i n 1924. The following year he received a B . E . in chemical engineering, a n d in the summer of 1925 w a s granted an M.S. in organic chemistry, physics, and mathematics. H e t h e n entered the XJniversity of Illinois t o continue work i n organic chemistry under Roger Adams, and received the degree of P h . D . in 1927, a t which time he joined the Organic Research Division of the Dow Chemical Co. I n addition t o the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, he i s a member of t h e Saginaw
Valley Torch Club, G a m m a P i Upsilon, P h i Lambda Upsilon, Sigma X i , and P h i B e t a Kappa.
