University of Maryland College Park - Terrapin / Reveille Yearbook (College Park, MD)

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DR. H. B. McDonnell

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Dr. H. B. McDonnell On a broad-acred farm near the little town of Florence, in Washington County, Pa., Dr. H. B. McDonnell was born, spending his boyhood there, assist- ing with the farm work, and attending the district school in winter. After a year spent in the public schools of Pittsburg he attended academies at Frankfort Springs, Pa., and Butler, Mo., taught school for a while, and then, in the fall of 1882, entered the Freshman class at Pennsylvania vState College, graduating four years later in the Chemistry and Physics Course. He obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Baltimore, in 1888, assisting while there in the Chemical Department of the Medical College as well as in the College of Pharmacy, and spending his vacation as chemist in a large fertilizer factory. Having practiced medicine for nearly a year, he accepted the position of assistant chemist at the Pennsylvania Experiment Station, and was appointed in 1891 Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in the Maryland Agricultural College. Since his residence here Dr. McDonnell ' s principal work has been the inspec- tion and analysis of fertilizers, spending his first long winter vacation in taking a course at Johns Hopkins. After the reorganization of the college in 1892 he assumed entire charge of the Department of Chemistry. At this time the income from fertilizer licenses amounted to only eight hundred a year, severely restricting the work of inspection. Having drafted certain amendments to the existing law, Dr. McDonnell succeeded in having it adopted in 1894, and now, with an income of nine thousand dollars for analyzing fertilizers under the new law, the Chemi- cal Department is self-sustaining. Dr. McDonnell is a member of the Washington Chemical Society, The Ameri- can Chemical Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Prince George ' s County Medical Society, of which he is secretary; The State Medical Society, and treasurer of the Maryland State Grange as well. Our association with Dr. McDonnell as an instructor has been most pleasant and delightful. Indeed, to our large class, divided as it is into engineers, farmers and scientists, he has been a binding tie, since we were all together under him as students of elementary chemistry in our Sophomore year. We have always appreciated his good-natured tolerance of our boyish exuberance and excesses,

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and consider it a factor in our education of no inconsiderable importance that we should have come in touch with such a man as he, who has so ably lived up to the true functions of a professor, which consists, we believe, not so much in mere technical teaching as in the strength and force of character which is brought to bear upon the pupils. The details of inorganic chemistry, its salts, its bases and its acids, have long since faded from our lax memories, but we doubt if ever our lively recollections of Doctor Mac, his methodical ways, his quiet criticisms and generous treatment of our, we fear, too oft offending class will ever be effaced. Around him, too, cluster some of the happiest experiences of our college course. Well do I remember how as Sophomores, fifty strong, we used to march down from the barracks to the old chemical lab. on our weekly jubilee parade, garbed like beggars of the nursery jingle, Some in rags, some in tags and some in velvet gowns. Surely we were a fearful and wonderful sight! And then up the stairs we would rush in a wild stampede that I often wonder it did not bring the building down. But it never appeared to phase Doctor Mac ; he had seen Sophomores come up those stairs before! Having arrived on the scene, we would proceed with all expedition to throw order back into chaos, and this we confess is one of the Doctor ' s tender points, since he is, we believe, a sincere believer in the commandment that Order is Heaven ' s First Law. Especiallv do I remember a balmy day in the late fall, when we had been manufacturing chlorine. From fifty generators the noxious gas was leaking out in copious quantities. The room was full of it, we were full of it, and everything in sight and hearing as well. At length we were driven out, and while the patient Doctor cleared the atmosphere we rolled among the rustling leaves and breathed in the rich autumn air. Those, too, were the days of weekly matinees, at which some of us (if I remember rightly) held box seats reserved for the entire season, and few were thev who so far disgraced themselves as to let a whole month go by without their patronage. If we were remiss in our studying, with what fear and trembling did we listen to Doctor Mac ' s cool, decisive That ' s sufhcient, when he had pumped the desired knowledge out of some reluctant individual and came on down the line to us. What joy if we answered correctly! What desperation if we tried to bluff! It was at the end of this same Sophomore year that we planted our row of star-leafed gums along what is to be some day the Avenue, and we can con- clude this simple appreciation in no more fitting manner then by joining, as we did then, in a hearty, Three Cheers for ' Doctor Mac ' and the whole McDonnell Family.