UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 32, Page NP-1
May 16, 1996
Named Professors
Benefactors and friends support scholarship

Fifty-two members of the University of Delaware faculty have been
chosen named professors-a designation honoring distinguished teaching
and scholarship. Nineteen retired members of the faculty are named
professors emeriti. Thirty benefactors and friends are memorialized by
named professorships.

     ELIAS AHUJA (1863-1951), a native of Spain, represented the
DuPont Co. in Chile early in the century. After retiring to his native
country, he was decorated by Alfonso XIII for his philanthropy. In
1937, he returned to the United States and, at his death, left a
substantial sum to philanthropies in Delaware in memory of his
association with the state.

     A graduate of Dartmouth College and Oxford University, where he
was a Rhodes Scholar, NED B. ALLEN (1899-1984) earned his doctorate
from the University of Michigan. He spent a year as a newspaper
reporter for the Springfield, Mass., Union and a year as an instructor
at the University of Southern California before joining the Delaware
faculty as an associate professor of English. He was promoted to full
professor in 1947, and later, was chairperson of the Department of
English. He retired in 1965. The author of a number of articles that
appeared in Modern Language Notes, The Shakespeare Association
Bulletin and Delaware Notes, he also wrote a book, The Sources of
Dryden's Comedies.

     ARTHUR ANDERSEN is a leading global accounting firm, with several
hundred locations in more than 60 countries, serving clients
worldwide. The firm employs a number of University graduates.

     HARRIET BAILY (1891-1988), a former art professor and chairperson
of the art department, was active in encouraging the development of
the state's cultural arts. A graduate of the Teacher's College of
Columbia University, she exhibited many of her paintings in
Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia and Wilmington.

     C. ERNEST BIRCHENALL, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of
Metallurgy, died in 1992. Birchenall joined the University's chemical
engineering faculty in 1960. He served as dean of the College of
Graduate Studies from 1964-67.

     H. FLETCHER BROWN (1867-1944), a chemist, business executive and
University trustee, was a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of
Harvard University. After retirement, he became a major figure in the
improvement of education in Delaware, to which he devoted a large
portion of both his time and his fortune. The University, the public
schools, the Y.M.C.A. and other groups were recipients of his aid.

     ALLAN P. COLBURN ( 1904-1955), a chemical engineer, acting
president of the University in 1950 and its first provost, had a
distinguished if short career in industrial research before joining
the faculty in 1938. Enterprising and imaginative, he was largely
responsible for the rapid development of the chemical engineering
department and for the initiation of doctoral programs.

     The Unidel professorships owe their origin to the UNIDEL
FOUNDATION, established by AMY E. DU PONT (1876-1962), sportswoman and
philanthropist. Through this agency she originally supported various
facets of women's education at Delaware and eventually she bequeathed
her estate to it.

     After application by University officials, the foundation's board
makes grants to finance specific projects that enrich educational
programs that are beyond what can be expected from the usual sources
of financial support.

     HENRY BELIN DU PONT (1898-1970), business executive, yachtsman
and pioneer aviator, was a University trustee and an active sponsor of
many civic and cultural enterprises. The breadth of his interests is
indicated by his having received two undergraduate degrees, one in
liberal arts from Yale University and one in engineering from M.I.T.
His generous benefactions to University activities were made with
little fanfare or publicity.

     HENRY FRANCIS DU PONT (1880-1969), the last life trustee of the
University, won distinction as a cattle breeder, a horticulturist and
a collector of American antiquities. His estate, Winterthur, became
nationally famous as the site of his collection of decorative arts and
early American interiors. In cooperation with Winterthur, the
University conducts graduate programs in early American material
culture and art conservation.

     CHARLES BLACK EVANS (1866-1933) was secretary of the Delaware
College Board of Trustees from 1886 until his death. Evans Hall, home
of the Department of Electrical Engineering, is named after Mr. Evans
and his father, George C. Evans, a member of the Board of Trustees
from 1856-1904.

     MAXWELL P. (1912-1983) and MILDRED H. HARRINGTON (1910-1990) had
special love for the coast. Both were Delaware natives, and Mr.
Harrington graduated from Delaware in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in
civil engineering. He worked for the federal government in marine
sciences for several years and served as an engineer at Camp
Lejeune-the U.S. Marine Corps base in Jacksonville, N.C. After Mr.
Harrington's death in 1983, Mrs. Harrington continued to support the
College of Marine Studies as a marine associate. In 1988, she donated
an extensive seashell collection amassed during their travels.

     WILLIS F. HARRINGTON SR. (1882-1959), a graduate of Delaware in
the class of 1902, took another degree at M.I.T. before entering the
chemical industry, where he particularly distinguished himself as an
executive in the manufacture of dyes. He was interested in many civic
ventures, including the Delaware Hospital, of which he was board
chairman. He and his brother, Chancellor William Watson Harrington
(1874-1959), a 1895 graduate of Delaware and a trustee for 59 years,
were long-time friends of the University.

     T. MUNCY KEITH, a member of the class of 1922, is a well-known
Wilmington lawyer, who earned his law degree from Harvard University.
An honorary lifetime member of the Alumni Association Board of
Directors, Mr. Keith is a strong supporter of the University and, in
1977, received the Outstanding Alumnus Award.

     ELIZABETH INEZ KELLEY (1901-1992) of William Hill Manor in
Easton, Md., attended the Delaware Women's College and later was
graduated from Drexel Institute of Technology. She spent many years as
private secretary and assistant to the president of Merck Chemical
Company.

     MBNA AMERICA has been a major supporter of the University since
it moved to Delaware in 1982. In the early 1990s, the bank created the
MBNA America Business Professorship. Currently under construction is
the MBNA America Hall, an addition to the College of Business and
Economics. Close to 2,000 alumni and students are employees.

     CHARLES POLK MESSICK (1882-1978), a graduate of Delaware in the
class of 1907, was a pioneer in the development of civil service merit
systems. Chief examiner and secretary of the New Jersey Civil Service
Commission as early as 1917, he became a national authority in the
field and was recognized as "the nation's elder statesman in public
personnel administration."

     HUGH MARTIN MORRIS (1878-1966), a native Delawarean, was
graduated from Delaware College, now the University, in 1898 with a
bachelor of arts degree. After teaching for two years, he studied law
and, in 1903, was admitted to the Delaware bar. He pursued a
distinguished legal career in Wilmington until 1919, when Woodrow
Wilson appointed him U.S. District Judge for Delaware. He retired from
the bench in 1930 to resume the active practice of law. In June 1928,
the University awarded him the honorary degree, doctor of laws, and a
year later he was appointed to the Board of Trustees, where he served
until 1959. For the last 20 years of his service, he was president of
the board. A noted benefactor of the University, his gifts included
his home and farm on Polly Drummond Hill in Newark. When the Hugh M.
Morris Library was dedicated in 1964, Judge Morris, though quite
elderly, attended the ceremony.

     JERZY L. NOWINSKI joined the Delaware faculty in 1961, was named
H. Fletcher Brown Professor in 1965 and retired in 1973. His master's
and doctoral degrees were awarded by the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute.
     The author or coauthor of several monographs and more than 200
papers, Dr. Nowinski founded and serves on the editorial board of the
Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, and he serves on the editorial boards
of the Journal of Thermal Stresses and the Iranian Journal of Science
and Technology. He has received a number of awards, including the
Officer Cross of Polonia Restitua, Gold Medal of Merit Government
Scientific Award, Silver and Gold Awards for the reconstruction of
Warsaw, M.T. Huber Scientific Prize and the Sigma Xi Scientific Award.

     ROBERT L. PIGFORD (1917-1988) , who chaired the Department of
Chemical Engineering from 1947-66, was the first recipient of the
University's prestigious Francis Alison Faculty Award. Dr. Pigford
held two named professorships- Allan P. Colburn Professor and later
University Professor-and served on the Board of Trustees from 1982
until his death in 1988.

     HENRY CLAY READ (1899-1972) was a member of the Delaware history
faculty from 1924-64, chairing the department from 1944-52. Dr. Read
edited the first two volumes of the three-volume series, Delaware: A
History of the First State.

     AMY REXTREW (1891-1974) was the first dean of the School of Home
Economics at Delaware. A native of New York, she held degrees from New
York State College for Teachers and Columbia University and had also
studied at Cornell University, the University of Tennessee and
Michigan State University. A member of the faculty from 1927, she was
dean from 1945-48 and served as dean of women from 1948-52. Miss
Rextrew was active in professional organizations, including the
American Home Economics Association and the Delaware Home Economics
Association.

     LYDIA H. RICHARDS (1872-1959), ROBERT H. RICHARDS SR. (1873-1951)
and ROBERT H. RICHARDS JR. (1905-1977) are memorialized by the
Richards Professorship. Lydia Richards was, for many years, a member
of the Women's College advisory committee to the Board of Trustees, of
which her husband, Robert H. Richards, a leader of the Delaware bar,
was a prominent member. Their son Robert H. Richards Jr., Delaware
'28, succeeded his father as head of the law firm of Richards, Layton
& Finger.

     H. RODNEY SHARP SR. (1880-1968), Delaware '00, was the
University's most generous patron in its long history. Besides his
gifts to the University's physical expansion and to the endowment, he
took a personal interest in the cultural opportunities available for
students and in the beauty of the campus, utilizing his position as a
life trustee and long-time chairman of the buildings and grounds
committee to help attain those ends. Through many years, his loyalty
to his alma mater never wavered.

     JOHN W. SHIRLEY (1908-1988) was an internationally known
authority on the Elizabethan scientist Thomas Harriot. His Harriot
studies began when he was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He came to
the University in 1962 as provost and vice president for academic
affairs, and he served in that capacity until 1972, when he was named
H. Fletcher Brown Professor. He also served as acting president of the
University during 1967-68. Dr. Shirley received his bachelor's degree
in physics and literature and his doctorate in literature and
philosophy, both with honors, from the University of Iowa. He also
received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from St. Lawrence
University and a doctor of letters degree from Durham University of
England. In 1982, the University awarded him the Medal of Distinction,
in recognition of his contributions.

     ROBERT LYLE SPENCER (1887-1945) was dean of Delaware's School of
Engineering from 1928 until his retirement in 1945. He was
instrumental in the growth of teaching, research and service programs
in the field of engineering at the University, and he contributed
substantially to the development of the physical plant to support
engineering science technology. Evans Hall was built during his
tenure, and, according to a 1945 issue of the University of Delaware
News, "Money provided to equip the building was inadequate. Teachers
and students had to make and install what they could. Dean Spencer
himself built all the classroom desks and bulletin boards in the new
building." He served as dean of Delaware College from February to
April 1944, and as acting president of the University from April to
May, 1944. He died in 1945, less than a month after he resigned from
the University because of illness. Spencer Laboratory is named in his
honor.

     CHAPLIN TYLER of Hockessin, a retired DuPont Company executive
and a generous benefactor of the University, has a strong interest in
business education. He established the Tyler named professorship in
the College of Business and Economics and also endowed a number of
Tyler Fellowships for MBA students. A member of the college's visiting
committee, he also was an adjunct professor in the UD College of
Engineering.