Talk:Thomas Messinger Drown

New Fields added to Lehigh's Curricula during the Drown Presidency

The question is: What new fields, or offerings leading to a degree in a specific subject (historically termed "Courses", but no longer), were created under President Thomas M. Drown? When I came to this article, I added a paragraph or so, however noticed that the original article stated that "Physics" was one of the new majors created when Drown was President. I think this is unlikely, but have left it in as I cannot refute it with a reference of some sort. The Physics Building was erected close to when Drown took office (1895), and that there were other, related majors then being offered or commenced, such as "Physical Engineering", and "Electrical Engineering". It would seem surprising that Physics would take so long to be recognized as an independent field, yet as Lehigh commenced as a University of Engineering, it is possible. Also names of different fields were changing, as curricula were merged, diversified, and expanded. It may well be true that we did not have a formal "Physics" major at the school until Drown. (John G. Lewis (talk) 15:04, 28 February 2015 (UTC))

I did read again Willard Ross Yates' coverage of the Drown years at Lehigh, and he does give indication that this may indeed have been the case: that Physics was not established as a degree program until the Drown Years (1895-1904). He writes that the latter "inherited" a difficult problem in E.E., engineering physics, and physics from his predecessors. As analyzed by President Drown, there were a number of issues: our facilities and offerings were not as strong, in these respective areas, as comparable institutions, and lead Professors were needed. Even some students complained. All this is the midst of a very serious depression, with a concomitant desire to expand offerings. Therefore, the struggle. Drown was forced to close down some University programs (Architecture). I am conjecturing that this was not resolved finally under Drown, but rather took a number of administrations to effectively heal. Physics was not a strong suit in the Natural Sciences, at Lehigh, early 20th century: this was rather Chemistry. (John G. Lewis (talk) 05:01, 14 March 2015 (UTC))

References

Questions related to Drown

One principle question re Drown is whether, and where, he received a Doctorate in Engineering (Chemical)? That he was acknowledged as an expert in this area is beyond dispute, as he taught at Lafayette and MIT, before assuming Lehigh's presidency. He also did much post-graduate work, various places. As the question was not resolved, I tended therefore in my writings to refer to Drown as "Mr. Drown" than otherwise. He was duly recognized for his expertise, but the point was that Engineering as a profession was still quite young, when Drown was a youth. I believe I remember reading somewhere that he was a recognized Dr. (with an official degree, Ph.D), and if I can ever find that (again), I will introduce it somehow, into the main article... T. M. Drown was, in different respects, a seminal president for the institution (Lehigh). In a number of areas he made advances that Lehigh would either accept at the time, or later come to accept. (John G. Lewis (talk) 20:05, 21 March 2015 (UTC))