Blake R Van Leer

Blake R. Van Leer
5th President of the Georgia Institute of Technology
In office 1944–1956
Preceded by	Marion L. Brittain
Succeeded by	Edwin D. Harrison
Dean of Engineering University of Florida
In office 1932–1937
Dean of Engineering North Carolina State University
In office 1937–1941
Berkeley City Council
In office 1924–1932
Personal details
Born	August 16, 1893 Mangum, Oklahoma
Died	January 23, 1956(1956-01-23) (aged 62) Atlanta, Georgia
Spouse(s)	Ella Lillian Wall Van Leer
Children	Blake Van Leer, Maryly Van Leer Peck, Samuel Van Leer
Alma mater	Purdue University University of Caen Normandy University of California, Berkeley
Occupation	University president and Colonel
Awards	Croix de Guerre
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1917–1953
Rank	Colonel
Commands	Corps of Engineers
Battles/wars	World War I World War II

Blake Ragsdale Van Leer (a.k.a. Blake Van Leer) (August 16, 1893 – January 23, 1956) was an orphan who became the fifth president of Georgia Institute of Technology, founder of Southern Polytechnic State University, former dean of University of Florida and North Carolina State University. He was also a United States Army officer, inventor, played a crucial role in Atlanta's economic growth and civil rights movement. During his 12-year tenure at Georgia Tech, women were admitted for the first time, steps were made towards integration, Tech changed its name from Georgia School of Technology to the Georgia Institute of Technology and went through a dramatic change.

Early life and education[]

Van Leer was born in Mangum, Oklahoma. After his father's death in 1897 he became an orphan without family and grew up in an all girls Masonic Orphanage in Texas. The same orphanage was subject to a book by Jim Dent, Twelve Mighty Orphans and later adapted into a film, 12 Mighty Orphans, in 2021. He graduated with honours from Purdue University in 1915 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. After World War I, he studied at University of Caen in France and returned to Berkeley where he received an M.S. in mechanical engineering. He later received a second master's degree from Purdue. Van Leer would also receive two honorary doctorates from Washington and Jefferson College and Purdue. In 1924 he married women right's advocate Ella Lillian Wall in Berkeley, California. He was awarded a traveling scholarship from American Society of Mechanical Engineers to study at University of Munich. In the 1920s Van Leer was a student and then professor at Berkley. At the time some of the brightest engineers such as J. Robert Oppenheimer taught or attended here. Later John R Freeman recruited Van Leer for his fellowship program, which sent promising students and professors to cutting edge hydraulic labs with a focus on exposing them to practices he believed would be useful in solving river problems.^[1] While working for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, he would invent the California pipe method for measuring water.^[2] Van Leer also served as a member of city council of Berkeley, California.^[3] Van Leer also co wrote the book Fifty Years’ Progress in Hydraulics with Lewis Ferry Moody who created the Moody chart.^[4] In 1930 Van Leer also lobbied congress to fund a National Museum of Engineering and Industry.^[5]

Dean[]

From 1932 to 1937 he was a Dean at the University of Florida.^[6] Van Leer was hired as Dean to expand the engineering program, oversee all applications for federal funding and chair the Advanced Planning Committee. During his tenure at Florida, he also worked with the Florida State Planning Board and directed a number of engineering institutes in the state. In 1937 he became the Dean of the School of Engineering at NC State University. While there he started the graduate program for engineering. Later, he was initiated as an honorary of the NCSU chapter of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity. In 1940 Van Leer was chairman of the American Society for Engineering Education and led the federal governments focus on research, prompting SPEE to form the Engineering College Research Association (ECRA), which was more concerned with research than SPEE had ever been. The ECRA spoke for most engineering researchers, sought federal funds, and collected and published information on academic engineering research.^[7] Around 1940, with the permission of Dean Harrelson, Van Leer gave half his time towards the North Carolina Office for Defense orders. He resigned his post as Dean in 1942 to take a military leave.^[8]

Officer[]

Van Leer's military career started with his appointment as second Lieutenant Engineer in the Officers Reserve Corps for the U.S. Army in July 1917. He was promoted after World War I and became a Captain. During the war, he led engineering teams who built bridges in front of the main infantry to cross rivers and fought in 5 different battles. On one occasion his unit held an island for two days against enemy forces and he several members of his unit were killed in action.^[9] Van Leer was awarded the French Croix de Guerre.^[10] He was reappointed in 1925 as a Major for the Corps of Engineers and later became Lieutenant Colonel in October 1942 for the Army Specialized Training Division. He was promoted to Colonel the following year and remained active during several periods of his life, until he retired in 1953.^[11] While being stationed in DC, he was a lecturer at George Washington University. While in active duty, he frequently lobbied congress for Universal Military Training due to its positive results on youth.^[9]

Georgia Tech[]

Main entrance to the Van Leer Building on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology

After World War II Van Leer returned to become the President of Georgia Tech. During his tenure the school, significantly expanded Georgia Tech, admitted women for the first time and began steps toward integration.^[12][13] Women being admitted to colleges and male dominated fields was a topic of debate in the 1950s. Van Leer advocated for women to join tech in 1948 and was met with immediate resistance by local officials. The board objected with concerns that women may suggest dress making classes or seek out husbands instead of serious careers. Van Leer stated he had been associated with coeducational institutions all his life and felt it wrong to discriminate against a student just because she's a woman. He began allowing women to enroll in night school and extension courses while waiting for the board of regents to vote.^[14] Following a failed attempt, In 1952 Van Leer narrowly pushed through a vote to allow women into Georgia Tech and his wife Ella would compliment this victory with setting up support groups for future female engineers. The victory would be met with protests from locals and media, The Atlanta Constitution ran a cartoon showing lingerie drying on clothesline from the main campus tower.^[15] Van Leer would later advocate women be allowed in other colleges while urging more women to become engineers at various conferences.^[16]

Atlanta and Georgia Tech growth[]

Van Leer also had a focus on making Atlanta the "MIT of the South."^[17] In the mid 1940s, Van Leer was a member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and also represented 10 Georgia colleges at the time, where he lobbied congress to not tear down student housing after the war and instead expand it.^[18] In 1946 Van Leer was appointed as a member to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization who had a focus to work against racism through influential statements on race starting with a declaration of anthropologists (among them was Claude Lévi-Strauss) and other scientists in 1950^[19][20] Georgia Tech secured about $240,000 annually in sponsored research and purchased an electron microscope for $13,000 (equivalent to $170,000 in 2020), the first such instrument in the Southeastern United States and one of few in the United States at the time.^[21] In May 1946 Van Leer lobbied government and business for funds for new facilities. The Research Building was expanded, and a $300,000 (equivalent to $3,000,000 in 2020) Westinghouse A-C network calculator was given to Georgia Tech by Georgia Power in 1947.^[22] A new $2,000,000 library was completed, new Textile and Architecture buildings completed and at the time the most modern gymnasium in the world was built.^[23] In 1953, Van Leer assisted with helping Lockheed Corporation establish a research and development and production line in Marietta. Later in 1955 he helped set up a committee to assist with establishing a nuclear research facility, which would later become the Neely Nuclear Research Center.^[24] When the Georgia Board of Regents ruled that all money received in a year had to be spent that year; this was problematic because most government contracts span multiple years. Van Leer created a solution, a non-profit corporation that would manage contracts for research services and subsequently hire the Engineering Experiment Station to perform the research. The new organization would also handle patents garnered through research, and distribute funds garnered from contracts and patents as needed.^[25] Van Leer was instrumental in making the school and Atlanta the first major research center in the American South. Van Leer was also chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority where he helped increase international trade by almost 200 percent from Georgia while the country as a whole was down 5 percent. His plan for this was to continue to encourage foreign students to enroll. At the time as many as 250 students from other countries have graduated.^[26] The building that houses Tech's school of Electrical and Computer Engineering bears his name.^[27][28]

1956 Sugar Bowl[]

During the lead-up to one of the most important college football games in history, Van Leer stood up to Georgia governor Marvin Griffin's demand to bar Bobby Grier from participating in the 1956 Sugar Bowl game. This game was between Van Leer's Georgia Tech and Grier's University of Pittsburgh. In anticipation of Grier's presence against Georgia Tech, Georgia governor Marvin Griffin, in December 1955, publicly sent a telegram to his state's Board of Regents imploring that teams from Georgia not engage in racially integrated events which had blacks either as participants or in the stands. Van Leer rejected this request, which was not a stand to serve him well in the 1950s. Van Leer was already catching heat for pushing through a vote to allow women in Georgia Tech. The board of regents commended Griffin for his stand on segregation and summoned Van Leer to discuss recent events and if the game should go through^[29] He was quoted:

Either we’re going to the Sugar Bowl or you can find yourself another damn president of Georgia Tech.

Griffin would later request that Van Leer and Georgia Tech's players be punished. Governor requested investigations into the president's school and another state representative John P Drinkard recommended that all of Georgia Tech's state funding be cut off if they proceed. Van Leer also received death about allowing an integrated game to proceed.^[30][31] Van Leer still stuck to his statements and later received a standing ovation from the faculty senate.^[32] Two weeks after the game, Van Leer died of a heart attack on January 24, 1956 at the Atlanta Veterans Hospital.^[33]

Southern Polytechnic State University[]

Globe

Van Leer played a crucial role in establishing the Southern Polytechnic State University (merged into Kennesaw State University in 2015^[34]) and is considered its founder. After World War II, the need for technicians spiked due to a major economic shift in Georgia from being a largely agricultural state to one that is more industry heavy.^[35] The new industries required technicians to bridge the growing gap between engineers and craftsmen, effectively the gap between research/development and building/implementing. At the time, most technical institutes in the United States were in the northeastern states; thus the need for a technical institute in the south was great.^[36]

In response to the growing demand, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Colonel Blake R. Van Leer, sought to establish a technical institute program in Georgia. In 1945 he was approached by the Associated Industries of Georgia (AIG) who shared their common desire to have such a program and offered Van Leer their support. It took years for Van Leer to convince the Board of Regents to give Georgia Tech authorization to establish a technical institute. On October 8, 1947 the authorization was granted. The location chosen for the fledgling institute was a Naval Air Station in Chamblee, GA, which eventually became the site of DeKalb–Peachtree Airport.^[37]: 1 The first director was to be Professor Lawrence V. Johnson, and it was going to open under the name of The Technical Institute.^[37]: 4 On March 24, 1948 The Technical Institute held registration for the spring quarter and 116 students enrolled (all but 10 World War II veterans), including one young woman named Barbara Hudson.^{[37]: 19, 23 [38]} The institute had a staff of 12.^[38]

Legacy[]

Long after his death, Van Leer continues to be remembered through scholarships awards, a building that bears his name, The 1956 Sugar Bowl, frequent stories about his tenure featured on various online news channels and his descendants.^[39] Artist Julian Hoke Harris sculpted a portrait plaque to honor his stance against Governor Griffin.^[40] Van Leer's son Samuel was quoted years later in the book saying his dad Could imagine a Ramblin Reck from Georga Tech being anyone, he did not concern himself with race or gender, just quality students and he was always progressive.^[41] Unbeknown to Van Leer, his wife did a great deal of genealogy research due to him being an orphan and traced his roots to the Van Leer family and Anthony Wayne, whose surname was used for Batman's identity.^[42]

Many of Van Leer's descendants would achieve notable careers in engineering, academia and or technology, e.g.:

• Maryly Van Leer Peck (1930–2011), was an American academic, and the first female President of a Florida Community College, first female chemical engineer graduate from Vanderbilt University, first woman to receive an M.S. and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Florida. Peck also founded the Guam Community College
• Blake Wayne Van Leer (1926–1997), held several prominent positions in the United States Navy as a Captain, engineer and Seabee.^[43] He received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, a Civil Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master's degree in Civil Engineering from Princeton University.^[44]
  • Blake Van Leer II also became a civil engineer, developed waste transfer facilities and waste to energy projects^[45]
    • Blake Van Leer III has a successful career as an entrepreneur and is a partner with business mogul Kathy Ireland on numerous companies^[46][47]

See also[]

• History of Georgia Tech#Postwar changes and unrest

References[]

Works cited[]

• Robert C. McMath; Ronald H. Bayor; James E. Brittain; Lawrence Foster; August W. Giebelhaus; Germaine M. Reed (1985). Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885–1985. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-0784-X.
• United States Bureau of Reclamation (1953). Measurement of Water for Irrigation Projects. Denver, CO: United States Bureau of Reclamation.

External links[]

• Van Leer family genealogy
• GIT profile from library
• Georgia Tech celebrates 50 years of women
• Official Army Register - 1956