Oral history interview with Harold J. Read
- 1995-Mar-22
Oral history interview with Harold J. Read
- 1995-Mar-22
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.Harold J. Read describes his family background and his upbringing in Illinois, where he also earned his BS and MA from the University of Illinois but Read later relocated to the University of Pennsylvania where his Ph.D. research brought him into the area of metallurgy. Read also worked for the Mellon Institute where his metal-work eventually led to equipment design and manufacturing prototypes for the Manhattan Project. Read was also greatly involved in the Electrochemical Society, eventually becoming its President while overlooking its publications.
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About the Interviewer
James J. Bohning was professor emeritus of chemistry at Wilkes University, where he had been a faculty member from 1959 to 1990. He served there as chemistry department chair from 1970 to 1986 and environmental science department chair from 1987 to 1990. Bohning was chair of the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry in 1986; he received the division’s Outstanding Paper Award in 1989 and presented more than forty papers at national meetings of the society. Bohning was on the advisory committee of the society’s National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program from its inception in 1992 through 2001 and is currently a consultant to the committee. He developed the oral history program of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and he was CHF’s director of oral history from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Bohning was a science writer for the News Service group of the American Chemical Society. In May 2005, he received the Joseph Priestley Service Award from the Susquehanna Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. Bohning passed away in September 2011.
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| Oral history number | 0145 |
Related Items
Interviewee biographical information
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Education
| Year | Institution | Degree | Discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | University of Illinois at Chicago | BS | Chemistry |
| 1935 | University of Illinois at Chicago | MS | Chemistry |
| 1939 | University of Pennsylvania | PhD | Chemistry |
Professional Experience
University of Illinois at Chicago
- 1933 to 1935 Chemist, Engineering Experimental Station
University of Pennsylvania
- 1935 to 1937 Assistant Instructor
- 1937 to 1938 DuPont Fellow
- 1938 to 1940 Instructor
Graham, Crowley & Associates
- 1936 to 1940 Part-time Chemist
Mellon Institute for Industrial Research
- 1940 to 1945 Industrial Fellow
Pennsylvania State University
- 1945 to 1951 Associate Professor of Physical Metallurgy
- 1951 to 1971 Professor of Metallurgy
Honors
| Year(s) | Award |
|---|---|
| 1961 | Proctor Memorial Award, Electroplaters Society |
| 1966 | Scientific Achievement Award, Electroplaters Society |
| 1986 | Honorary Member, The Electrochemical Society |
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Complete transcript of interview
The published version of the transcript may diverge from the interview audio due to edits to the transcript made by staff of the Center for Oral History, often at the request of the interviewee, during the transcript review process.