On Friday, October 8, we held the Fourth Annual BYU Chemical Engineering Department Alumni Homecoming dinner and program. Approximately 76 people attended, the food was good, and the program was fun and uplifting. As a warm-up, some humorous awards were given to those who had the largest number of children, attended the largest number of schools, has held the largest number of jobs since graduation, etc., and I gave a brief state-of-the-department report (emphasize brief). But the best part of the evening came in 2 events. For the first event, Ben Markham (B.S. ‘71, M.S. ‘72) was presented with the 1999 L. Douglas Smoot Outstanding Alumnus Award (Doug Smoot made the presentation). The second event of the evening consisted of Dr. Wilfred Griggs, Brigham Young University Professor of Ancient Studies, giving us a very interesting and enjoyable slide presentation about his recent digs in Egypt and the fascinating discoveries from those digs. It was a great evening!

Life is filled with transitions, including among the Chemical Engineering faculty at BYU. I was reminded of that upon hearing the sad report of the passing of Wendell Wiser, one of the very first to teach chemical engineering at BYU. Then, I thought about the fact that Paul Hedman will be retiring from the Department in December 2000 (I’ll leave the eulogy for a time closer to his retirement). This led me to reflect on how young the Department really is and to think about the faculty who have served here during its brief history.

The Department of Engineering Science was created in 1952, and the first chemical engineering courses were taught by Prof. Angus Blackham from the Chemistry Department. But the first official ChE faculty member was Billings Brown, hired in 1953, even before the Chemistry Department was renamed the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in 1955. The Department of Chemical Engineering was born in 1958, and many faculty members have come to contribute, some for a few years and some for more than a few. Here are their names and years of service (listed in order of the date they first joined the Department):

Each one of these faculty members has made a lasting contribution to the Department. We owe particular thanks to those early pioneering professors who, though small in number, taught all of the classes and did so without established laboratories or an accredited program. Through their efforts, the Department was accredited in 1961, a Masters degree program was approved in 1962, and a PhD degree was added in 1968. Through continuing hard work by all who have joined the effort, we have been grateful to see many talented and capable students receive an excellent education and to see the Department faculty make numerous important contributions to their scholarly fields. Publications, grants, and recognition have been a natural result of those contributions, as they should be. The work is still demanding, but our students deserve the best education possible in an increasingly- complex world. Besides, prophets have spoken about BYU as an educational Mt. Everest, and that prophetic goal continually stirs within us. Our collective gratitude to all who have helped in the quest.

By the way, Paul Hedman’s retirement will create an opening in our faculty, and the department is accepting applications, with the goal of filling the position by September 2000. Anyone interested in applying should submit a resume and the names of 3 references by December 15 to Prof. Bill Hecker, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 350 CB, BYU, Provo, UT 84602.