Muhlenberg College - Ciarla Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

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Dr. Charles E. Mortimer, Professor of Chemistry ming to Muhlenberg in 1950, Dr. Charles Mortimer began a career marked by continual service and successful achievement that has spanned 33 years. Dr. Mortimer has served the College faithfully through membership on countless number of faculty and college committees. He has been honored with the Good Teaching A ward. Dr. Mortimer also served as Pre-Med Advisor from I960 until 1976. In addition to teaching General Chemistry, Dr. Mortimer, in collaboration with Dr. Joanne Mortimer, designed and taught a course in the history of science. To his students he is perhaps best known as the man who wrote THE book . On the occasion of his retirement from Muhlenberg College, the 1983 CIARLA takes the opportunity to acknowledge the many contributions of Dr. Mortimer both to his field and to the maintainance of academic excellence at Muhlenberg College. 5

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uhlenberg College traces its origins to the Allentown Seminary , which was a teachers’ school founded in 1848. This non-denominational Christian school was located in Trout Hall, and opened with only four students. It grew quickly, however, and by 1853, enrollment was 202. The institution did not officially become a college under Pennsylvania state law until 1864, when its name was changed to the Allentown Collegiate and Military Institute. Apparently the new school’s emphasis on military training was unpopular, because, only three years later, the institute closed, to reopon as Muhlenberg College. Muhlenberg was officially christened on May 21, 1867, under its first president, the Reverend Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, D.D. (the great-grandson of Henry Melchier Muhlenberg, founder of the Lutheran Church in America, and the man for whom Muhlenberg College was named). Muhlenberg remained at Fourth and Walnut Streets until 1905, when the College purchased the land on which the campus is currently situated, and built Ettinger and Berks Hall. At this time there were only ten faculty and 95 students. Ettinger contained not only offices and classrooms, but also the library. But the college was growing by 1929, the faculty had increased to 32, and the student body to 438. In addition, about 900 students attended the Extention School, a program similar to today’s Evening College. To accomodate this growth, the Library, Science Building, and Chapel were all built during the second half of the I920’s. Muhlenberg continued to grow gradually over the next ten years. West Hall was added as a freshman dormitory when Muhlenberg acquired the building from Allentown Preparatory School in 1939. The administrative staff was increased by the addition of a Vice-President, Dean of Students, and Dean of Freshmen. But during the I940’s the College experienced several shocks, first when enrollment plunged as a result of the Second World Wan and after the war, when veterans returned to finish their education. To add to the strain of coping with these conditions, a fire in Ettinger on Memorial Day, 1947, destroyed the roof and third floor of the building. But the College survived. Ettinger was repaired, and by 1953, the campus was once again in the process of expansion, this time by the construction of Memorial Hall.