Personnel.
Dr. Herman Shulman joined the faculty as assistant professor of chemical
engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he had been a Dupont Fellow, the
highest fellowship offered there. Later he would serve as department chairman, director of the
division of research, dean of the graduate school, vice president and dean of engineering, and
provost before retiring in 1988.
George Oberst, CPA, joined the faculty as associate professor of business
administration. He had graduated from New York University with a bachelor of commercial
science degree, and passed his CPA examination in 1931. He was associated with various firms
in that capacity until 1946 when he became treasurer and a director of Atlantic Plastics, Inc., an
office from which he resigned to accept the position at Clarkson. He taught until his retirement
in 1975.
Edward McHugh was appointed acting head of mechanical engineering on the death of
Prof. Weiss. He graduated from Rhode Island College in 1928, and had come to Clarkson as a
member of the mechanical engineering department in 1939, was named assistant professor in
1942, and associate professor in 1945. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi,
national engineering honoraries, and ASCE. He was assistant area engineer for the U.S.
Engineers, and served as consultant for the American Screw Company of Providence, R.I.
John T. Rollins joined the faculty as assistant professor of mechanical engineering. He
was a graduate of Penn State, and received his ME degree from RPI. He formerly was an
instructor in heat, engineering, kinematics, trigonometry, and calculus at Wyomissing
Polytechnic Institute, Penn.
Charles Penrose was appointed librarian of the College. He attended Marietta College in
Ohio where he received his AB and the College of William and Mary where he obtained an
LLB. After receiving the ABLS at the University of Michigan, he spent two years as assistant
librarian at Bethany College. He saw military service during World War II with the US Army in
Teheran, Iran.
"Ed" Clarridge retired after 26 years of faithful service to Clarkson as custodian of Old
Main. Ever ready to lend a helping hand, Ed knew every student and every faculty member in
the "good old days" when the enrollment varied between 150 and 300. His "cozy little hole in
the wall" was the regular morning rendezvous of the civil engineers when Ed had a warm
greeting and a friendly word to counteract the bitter weather of North Country winters. His
office served as "Huddy's" [Ross Hudson] secret hiding place when dodging complaining
students. Whenever student passersby heard an explosive burst of laughter from within, they
knew that Bill Farrisee had just told a good one about the traveling salesman and the farmer's
daughter. Ed's son, Charles '30, taught civil engineering at Clarkson until his retirement in
1973, and his grandson, Stephen, graduated in 1968.
Andy Ormsby joined the Clarkson faculty as professor of business administration and
chairman of the business administration department from the Worthington Pump and
Machinery Corporation, Harrison, N.J., where he was director of industrial relations. A native
of Braddock, Penn., he received his LLB from Xavier University College of Law in 1934, a BS
from Pitt in 1945, and an MS from the Columbia University School of Business a year later. He
was an industry representative to the National War Labor Board of the New York-New Jersey
Section from 1942 through 1947. He began teaching in 1945 at Brooklyn College, continued at
Cornell until 1948 when he joined the Clarkson faculty. He died while on vacation in Florida in
January 1965, less than a year after his retirement in June 1964.
