Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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DEAN ELMER ALLEN HOLBRCOK any ERWIN W. RUNKLE A teacher or administrator must bring with him certain experiences into an academic envir- onment, if he is to measure up to its demands. These experiences come not from books alone, but from genuine contact with the common people, and from sympathy with our essential democracy. To teach, a man must have learned, and to learn is to have gone to school into life. Dean Holbrook came to educational work at Penn State from a Wide contact with industrial conditions in the coun- tries north and south of us and in practically every state in the Union. He has prospected and developed the mine, worked in and directed the laboratory, served government appointment, en- gaged in university work both in this country and Canada, prosecuted technical research and or- ganized its industrial applications. V Dean Holbrook was born in the industrial community of Fitchburg, Miassachusetts, June 23, 1881. His forebears were English, and among the earliest colonists from Devon. He attended the schools of his native city and graduated from the High School in 1898. Even as a youth, he was possessed of an ambition to be a leader in industrial life, rather than a follower of the apprcn. ticeship-Workman career of so many in the community. His ideal was not the factory utilizatign of the raw materials, but the discovery of them in nature's laboratories in held and mine. Hence two years in the 'tuniversity of hard knocksf, in contact with the alphabet of his destined pi-Ofesi sion, was the best preparation for his collegiate training to follow. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1900, and received the degree of bachelor of science in 19011-. Following his graduation, Dean Holbrook spent nine years in practical work as super-intend- ent of mining operations, as prospector and developer of new enterprises in the western part of our own country, in the British possessions, and in Mexico. In 1911, he was elected Professor of Min. ing and Metallurgy in the Nova Scotia Technical College at Halifax, where he designed and con. structcd the government mining and metallurgical laboratory. In 1913 he became Assistant Pro- fessor of Mining at the University of Illinois, and Professor in 1915. He was awarded, the fol- lowing year, the honorary degree of Engineer of Mines. The Great War brought with it the call to technical service, and Dean Holbrook served as En- gineer in charge of the Central West Division of the Bureau of Mines, and as Mining Engineer and Metallurgist in the Bureau at Washington. Recognition was accorded of the value of his work, both at close of the war and later for the way in which the various factors of production, conservation and utilization were co-ordinated in those trying times. Upon the resignation of Doctor Elwood S. Mioore in 1922, Dean Holbrook was chosen Dean of the School of Mines at The Pennsylvania State College. He has developed the departments within the School, and broadened the curriculum by adding a department of Ceramics. I-Ie has multiplied the extension activities, furthered adult educational conl.acts with the mininfr industries of the State, as well as fostered research as vital to the School. P 1 Dean Holbrook is the author of papers on mining issued by the Engineering Experiment Sta- tion of the University of lllinois, and by the United States Bureau of Mines. His periodical contiii- butions are numerous, and as Registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth, his expe,-i- enced counsel is in varied demand. He is serving, also, as Chairman of the Mining Branch of the American Engineering Standards Committee under the National Research Council. During a fguf months leave in 1923 he was Engineer of the United States Coal Commission relating to Safety in mining. He is active in the various professional associations of his chosen field, and is a member of the following social and scholastic academic societies: Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Xi Phi Ka 1 ri Phi, Sigma Tau, Sigma Gamma Epsilon. , H ' 1 H i Dean Holbrook is a leader in activities for the welfare of the community as t'uSg,.,.,.d IW the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis, the University and Centre Hills Country Clubs Ielt- I1-IQ joined forces in making our community needs felt and our advantages understood. He 'is -1 71.1.3 uine friend of the student body, and is giving valuable counsel and direction to the better K P i collegiate athletics. ln the religious activities of his chosen church, in civic affairs in campus rub lems, as well as in academic work, the friends of Dean Holbrook have learned to count npoiijhini as an active co-laborer. Ambitious only to serve is a fitting characterization of his salient personality ment of

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