|
| |
CHE Department History - Some Old Grad
Recollections
Irving Leibson, Sc.D. - BSChE 1945, MSChE 1947
 I
graduated from high school in Miami Beach when I was 15, and after three years
(winters and summers) at UF, I graduated with a BSChE degree at the tender age
of 18. My first year was spent largely learning how to shoot pool at the Student
Union, although I did manage to eke out half A's and B's for Phi Eta Sigma. When
I became a sophomore I had my first exposure to chemical engineering via Hougen
& Watson's Stochiometry taught by Ralph Morgen,
and I became a serious student.
By then (during World War II) the campus had shrunk to about 500 students. Unit
operations and lab were very stimulating under
Dr. Beisler, who was right at home with
the rest of us, singing a tune while he swung a pipe wrench. We all got our
hands dirty and learned the practical side of engineering. I still remember the
joy of discovering that the basic laws of heat and mass conservation really
worked in practice.
Thermodynamics under Ralph Morgen's leadership was an adventure I also enjoyed.
He set high standards of excellence in his classes and had a habit of springing
pop quizzes that prepared us for later life—we never knew when they would occur
and therefore developed a certain professional poise. It was Morgen's belief
that on the job you never know when you will be put to the test by your boss, so
you have to be prepared at all times. I managed to graduate with honors but
there were only five left in our CHE class at graduation, the rest having gone
into the military. I stayed on for a masters degree in 1946 and then went to
Carnegie Tech for a D.Sc. degree.
While in Gainesville I worked at a variety of jobs: cafeteria line server and
tray washer to ice cream dipper at the College of Education cafeteria, waiter at
a Spanish restaurant, lab assistant in the Chemistry Department, and lab
technician at the Cabot Carbon plant in destructive distillation. All of these
jobs helped prepare me for challenges in later life. I remember those years with
nostalgia.
My MS thesis was on the physical properties of lime-sand formulations for
construction brick and was supervised by Mack
Tyner. The faculty was very close to the students and we had a warm
relationship through the war and post-war years. Students had the feeling that
these professors really cared about their personal and professional development
and sought to help with good guidance.
I served as president of the student AIChE chapter, chairman of the Benton
Engineering Council, and president of Alpha Phi Omega, the scouting service
fraternity. I managed to become a member of the chemistry honorary, Gamma Sigma
Epsilon, the engineering honorary, Sigma Tau, as well as Phi Eta Sigma and Sigma
Xi.
Book-learning at the Chemical Engineering Department was sound for its time, and
character building and learning how to deal with people and situations in a
professional setting was invaluable to me as preparation for later years.
Comment: Irving Leibson is president of Bold Technologies in Stuart,
Florida. In 1988 he received the UF's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was
president of AIChE in 1974 and received its Founders Award in 1976 and its
Distinguished Service Award in 1995. His career included engineering for Florida
Power and Light, Humble Oil Co., military service in the Korean War in the
Chemical Corps, teaching engineering at U. Maryland, manager of research and
engineering for Dart Industries, and vice president, science advisor, and
partner of Bechtel, the world's largest engineering and construction company.
|
