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CHE Department History - Remembrances of a
Few Past Professors
Ralph A. Morgen
Ph.D., 1926, University of California-Berkeley
 Along
with Walter Beisler, Ralph Morgen was a founding father of the Chemical
Engineering Department. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1926, working under the
renowned G.N. Lewis at U.C.-Berkeley.
After a few years in industry, he came to UF in 1938 to help create chemical
engineering as a department in the College of Engineering. He introduced new
courses and went about getting the Department national accreditation with ECPD.
As Assistant Director, and then Director of E.I.E.S. (the Engineering and
Industrial Experiment Station), Dr. Morgen saw that chemical engineering had a
great opportunity to expand industries in Florida, and he went about enlarging
the Department with a significant infusion of new faculty. He continued to
teach, and his former students remember him with affection and praise.
In 1952 he left UF for an illustrious career, first in the National Science
Foundation, then as Director of the Purdue Research Foundation, President of
Rose Polytechnic Institute (now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology), and
finally as Dean of the Graduate School at Stevens Institute of Technology. Very
active in the engineering profession, he also served as president of the
American Society for Engineering Education.
In retirement, Dr. Morgen continued his good works and as testament to his
labors, received an award for improving the county library systems in Florida.
In his later years, he moved back to Gainesville where he was active in the
Friends of the Library, and at the age of 90 he held bragging rights as the
oldest player on the West End golf course.
Dr. Morgen attended departmental and University affairs until he passed away
quietly at the age of 92. His son, "Tony," also a graduate of the Department,
established an endowed graduate fellowship in his father's name.
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