Crawford Hallock Greenewalt (August 16, 1902 – September 28, 1993) was an American
chemical engineer
A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...
who was president of the
DuPont Company
Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to:
People
* Dupont (surname), a surname of French origin
* Du Pont family, one of the wealthiest families in the United States
Companies
* DuPont, one of the world's largest chemical compan ...
from 1948 to 1962, and chairman from 1962 to 1967.
Early life
Crawford Hallock Greenewalt was born in
Cummington, Massachusetts
Cummington is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 829 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a decline from the figure of 872 tabulated in 2010. It is part of the Springfield, Mas ...
, the son of Frank Lindsay Greenewalt and
Mary Hallock-Greenewalt, an inventor and pianist born in Beirut. In 1922, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
, where he joined
Theta Chi fraternity. He later became a Life Member of the
MIT Corporation in 1951, and emeritus in 1977.
Career
While at DuPont, Greenewalt was a key figure in their development of
nylon
Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups.
Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...
and their
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...
program. He was awarded the
Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement by the DuPont Company in 1991.
His widely varied interests included
ornithology
Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...
and
high-speed photography
High-speed photography is the science of taking pictures of very fast phenomena. In 1948, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) defined high-speed photography as any set of photographs captured by a camera capable of 69 ...
via his friend
Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton. Greenewalt published a book of 70 high-speed photographs of
hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...
in 1960 (Greenewalt, C.H. 1960. ''Hummingbirds'' Doubleday & Co., Garden City, New York.). And later, ''Dimensional relationships for flying animals'' Washington. Smithsonian Institution, 1962. In 1968, he published ''Bird Song. Acoustics and Physiology'' Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. He was president of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
Greenewalt is the subject of the film ''The Uncommon Man: Crawford H. Greenewalt'', produced by the
Atomic Heritage Foundation.
Personal life
Greenewalt and his wife Margaretta (née
Du Pont) had two sons,
Crawford "Greenie" Greenewalt Jr. (1937-2012) and David Greenewalt, and daughter, Nancy L. Frederick. The younger Crawford was a professor of classical archaeology at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
who was among the leaders of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis. David died in 2003.
Greenewalt died in
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...
in 1993, one day after having a
stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
.
[Staff report (September 29, 1993]
Crawford Greenewalt of DuPont Dies.
MIT Tech Talk (Volume 38, Number 8)
See also
*
John Mulchaey holds the Crawford H. Greenewalt chair at the
Carnegie Observatories, of which he is also the director
References
External links
1965 Audio Interview with Crawford Greenewalt by Stephane GroueffVoices of the Manhattan Project
*
In memoriam: Crawford H. GreenewaltThe Crawford Greenewalt Manhattan Project Diaries
* Finding aid fo
Crawford Greenewalt photograph collection
at Hagley Museum and Library
1902 births
1993 deaths
People from Cummington, Massachusetts
DuPont people
American chemical engineers
William Penn Charter School alumni
MIT School of Engineering alumni
United States Army Science Board people
Manhattan Project people
20th-century American engineers
Member of the Mont Pelerin Society
20th-century American chemists
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