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CHE Department History - Some Old Grad
Recollections
Howard W. Smoyer - BSChE 1934
 In
the Fall of 1930, I came to Gainesville to become a chemical engineer. My dorm
fees were paid and I received $50 per month expenses. The depression was just
beginning and this $50 was probably less than most received. Before I graduated,
however, I had advanced to the luxury class. I received an additional 25 to 50
cents an hour from the FERA (The Federal Emergency Relief Administration) for
grading papers for 18 hours per month (in those days, you could get a full
course dinner with steak filet for 60 cents).
Professor Beisler was head of the CHE
department. Besides the advance course he taught, he conducted a freshman course
in chemistry for all engineers.
The course load per semester varied from 18 to 21 hours. The more difficult
courses included analytical geometry, differential and integral calculus,
thermodynamics, and scientific German. One of the bugaboos for all engineers was
English composition—on the final exam if you made one error you had to repeat
the whole course. In shop class I had a problem making an acceptable wooden
pulley.
All engineering students were in the artillery for two years—compulsory military
science. I'll never forget having to ride a horse through the neighboring woods,
especially when I got the horse with a blind right eye—I had more than one
scraped right leg.
Dr. Jackson, who taught physical chemistry, will be remembered by all his
students for being able to call his students by name after he slowly called the
roll. He never forgot a student.
Our starting class was about twenty students. I believe six or eight of them
made it through graduation in 1934.
Jobs were scarce in 1934, and I ended up attending St. Pete Jr. College to get a
teaching certificate. I started in the middle of 1935 teaching in Jr. High, then
went to Georgia Tech and got a masters in chemistry, and returned to St. Pete
Sr. High to teach math. I served for three years in a chemical lab company in
England and France in World War II. I ended up teaching chemistry for twenty-two
years at Florida State University and retired in 1969.
By way of thanking the Chemical Engineering Department, my wife and I have set
up a scholarship for needy students in the department.
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