Passionate scientist, teacher still helping students
By Clint Talbott
Robert H. Doremus did not tell students what to do or how to think. Rather than pushing them, he would help them, encourage them, cajole them and patiently field questions from them—even at home and even, in the case of one particularly anxious Italian student, at the dinner hour.
As students learned, “It was like watching a flower open.”
That’s how Doremus, a longtime professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is remembered by his wife of 51 years, Germaine Doremus.
“He never tried to change the person,” Mrs. Doremus recalls. “He wanted them to follow their own path, and if the students did not listen to him, he did not push it.”
A University of Colorado alumnus, he had been a member of RPI’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering since 1971 and was nationally recognized as a leader in glass and ceramic science research. Professor Doremus was New York State Science and Technology Foundation Professor of Glass and Ceramics until his retirement in 2003.
Although Professor Doremus passed away in 2008 after a four-year battle with cancer, he still helps students at CU and elsewhere. Before his death, Professor Doremus endowed a $100,000 scholarship for CU students in chemistry.
The Harold Walton Endowed Scholarship is named after a CU chemistry professor whom Professor Doremus admired. Dr. Walton had wide-ranging interests, including rock-climbing, classical music and poetry. He was also a Quaker and a founding member of the Boulder Friends Meeting, a Quaker meeting of worship.
Like Professor Doremus, Dr. Walton was a scientist and deeply appreciative of the arts. Both were religious and notably accepting of other people, Mrs. Doremus says.
Professor Doremus graduated from CU in 1950 with degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. He went to the University of Illinois and earned a Ph.D. in 1953. While on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, England, he earned a second Ph.D in 1956.
It was there that he and the future Mrs. Doremus met. Hailing from the South of France, she was teaching at the Université de Toulouse. An English teacher by training, she was required to spend a year in an English-speaking country.
They met via the British Council, the United Kingdom’s international cultural-relations body. They married in 1956 in France.
The couple moved to the United States, where he spent 15 years working for General Electric before joining the faculty at RPI, where he spent the rest of his career.
“Through interactions with Bob Doremus for the past 37 years, my life was enriched professionally and privately,” Minoru Tomozawa, RPI professor of materials science and engineering, wrote in 2008.
“He was a great teacher, scholar, mentor and colleague. Above all he was a great human being. He had a very successful life.”
That success came in many forms. He published several books and more than 250 articles, and he received several awards for teaching. He was a deacon of the Messiah Lutheran Church in Schenectady, NY, and he and Mrs. Doremus are the parents of four children.
As a teacher and lifelong learner, Professor Doremus had found his calling. “He was a born teacher, and he didn’t care if he didn’t teach Ph.D.s. He was very humble about it, too,” says Mrs. Doremus.
But his interests ranged beyond science and engineering. He loved words and poetry, and was known to start chemical-engineering classes with a poetic reading or ruminations on a stained-glass window.
“He was a very curious person, by nature, about everything,” Mrs. Doremus says. “I used to tease him that he was not a man; he was an encyclopedia.”
“He always thought education was a very important thing,” she adds, noting that he justified his philanthropic contributions this way: “I have the money. I might as well give it.”
Even in retirement, he gave in other ways, too, Mrs. Doremus notes: “The last five years of his life, he was teaching at RPI without being paid. He was teaching thermodynamics. And it was very hard for him, because he was sick.”
In addition to teaching on a volunteer basis, he paid an assistant out of his own pocket.
He even tried teaching his wife. “I said, ‘You are boring me,’” she recalls.
But the couple did collaborate on his books, which she edited. “I cannot judge him as a scientist, but I read and corrected his books from an English point of view,” Mrs. Doremus recalls.
Sometimes, they would debate “I said you cannot have this sentence. It doesn’t make any sense. Finally, I got my way.”
Today, the professor is remembered by the impact he still has on students. “Dr. Doremus’ legacy is measured not only by his wealth of scientific contributions, but by his profound and continuing impact on the lives of his students. My wife, Sharon, and I owe so much to his teaching, wisdom and advice,” notes Alfonso Chan, an RPI alumnus.
Vy H. Le, a Walton scholarship recipient, says the assistance made a big difference to her. "I came to the USA in 2004 with a dream of becoming a chemist and no money in my pocket,” she says.
English is her second language, and she struggled to understand the lectures and textbooks. During her first two years in college, she tried to support herself by working part-time at a beauty salon.
“However, in my junior and senior years, working after school was impossible for me because of the intensive classes and my research projects,” Le adds. “The Harold Walton scholarship and other grants I received were a big support that helped me get through those years and still be able to spend time on my research.”
She credits those research experiences with being admitted to graduate school at Colorado State University this year.
David Skoff, a two-time recipient of the award, notes that he first received the scholarship, he was just “starting to understand just how much time” it takes to complete a higher-level degree.
“When I thought about the many semesters of study I still had remaining, it made the road ahead seem long and challenging,” Skoff recalls. “Hearing that I was being awarded this scholarship helped me reenergize and focus on my studies because I knew that my efforts were being recognized. For the remainder of my undergraduate studies I challenged myself to perform at a level worthy of this award.”
Now pursuing Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Skoff adds. “With my continued efforts in the field of chemistry I truly aspire to carry on the principles set forth by Dr. Doremus.”
For more information and to get involved, please contact Mary McGee, director of development, CU Foundation, at 303-541-1470 or via e-mail at mary.mcgee@cufund.org.
Robert H. Doremus did not tell students what to do or how to think. Rather than pushing them, he would help them, encourage them, cajole them and patiently field questions from them—even at home and even, in the case of one particularly anxious Italian student, at the dinner hour.
As students learned, “It was like watching a flower open.”
That’s how Doremus, a longtime professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is remembered by his wife of 51 years, Germaine Doremus.
“He never tried to change the person,” Mrs. Doremus recalls. “He wanted them to follow their own path, and if the students did not listen to him, he did not push it.”
Robert and Germaine Doremus
A University of Colorado alumnus, he had been a member of RPI’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering since 1971 and was nationally recognized as a leader in glass and ceramic science research. Professor Doremus was New York State Science and Technology Foundation Professor of Glass and Ceramics until his retirement in 2003.
Although Professor Doremus passed away in 2008 after a four-year battle with cancer, he still helps students at CU and elsewhere. Before his death, Professor Doremus endowed a $100,000 scholarship for CU students in chemistry.
The Harold Walton Endowed Scholarship is named after a CU chemistry professor whom Professor Doremus admired. Dr. Walton had wide-ranging interests, including rock-climbing, classical music and poetry. He was also a Quaker and a founding member of the Boulder Friends Meeting, a Quaker meeting of worship.
Like Professor Doremus, Dr. Walton was a scientist and deeply appreciative of the arts. Both were religious and notably accepting of other people, Mrs. Doremus says.
Professor Doremus graduated from CU in 1950 with degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. He went to the University of Illinois and earned a Ph.D. in 1953. While on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, England, he earned a second Ph.D in 1956.
It was there that he and the future Mrs. Doremus met. Hailing from the South of France, she was teaching at the Université de Toulouse. An English teacher by training, she was required to spend a year in an English-speaking country.
They met via the British Council, the United Kingdom’s international cultural-relations body. They married in 1956 in France.
The couple moved to the United States, where he spent 15 years working for General Electric before joining the faculty at RPI, where he spent the rest of his career.
“Through interactions with Bob Doremus for the past 37 years, my life was enriched professionally and privately,” Minoru Tomozawa, RPI professor of materials science and engineering, wrote in 2008.
“He was a great teacher, scholar, mentor and colleague. Above all he was a great human being. He had a very successful life.”
That success came in many forms. He published several books and more than 250 articles, and he received several awards for teaching. He was a deacon of the Messiah Lutheran Church in Schenectady, NY, and he and Mrs. Doremus are the parents of four children.
As a teacher and lifelong learner, Professor Doremus had found his calling. “He was a born teacher, and he didn’t care if he didn’t teach Ph.D.s. He was very humble about it, too,” says Mrs. Doremus.
But his interests ranged beyond science and engineering. He loved words and poetry, and was known to start chemical-engineering classes with a poetic reading or ruminations on a stained-glass window.
“He was a very curious person, by nature, about everything,” Mrs. Doremus says. “I used to tease him that he was not a man; he was an encyclopedia.”
“He always thought education was a very important thing,” she adds, noting that he justified his philanthropic contributions this way: “I have the money. I might as well give it.”
Even in retirement, he gave in other ways, too, Mrs. Doremus notes: “The last five years of his life, he was teaching at RPI without being paid. He was teaching thermodynamics. And it was very hard for him, because he was sick.”
In addition to teaching on a volunteer basis, he paid an assistant out of his own pocket.
He even tried teaching his wife. “I said, ‘You are boring me,’” she recalls.
But the couple did collaborate on his books, which she edited. “I cannot judge him as a scientist, but I read and corrected his books from an English point of view,” Mrs. Doremus recalls.
Sometimes, they would debate “I said you cannot have this sentence. It doesn’t make any sense. Finally, I got my way.”
Today, the professor is remembered by the impact he still has on students. “Dr. Doremus’ legacy is measured not only by his wealth of scientific contributions, but by his profound and continuing impact on the lives of his students. My wife, Sharon, and I owe so much to his teaching, wisdom and advice,” notes Alfonso Chan, an RPI alumnus.
Vy H. Le, a Walton scholarship recipient, says the assistance made a big difference to her. "I came to the USA in 2004 with a dream of becoming a chemist and no money in my pocket,” she says.
English is her second language, and she struggled to understand the lectures and textbooks. During her first two years in college, she tried to support herself by working part-time at a beauty salon.
“However, in my junior and senior years, working after school was impossible for me because of the intensive classes and my research projects,” Le adds. “The Harold Walton scholarship and other grants I received were a big support that helped me get through those years and still be able to spend time on my research.”
She credits those research experiences with being admitted to graduate school at Colorado State University this year.
David Skoff, a two-time recipient of the award, notes that he first received the scholarship, he was just “starting to understand just how much time” it takes to complete a higher-level degree.
“When I thought about the many semesters of study I still had remaining, it made the road ahead seem long and challenging,” Skoff recalls. “Hearing that I was being awarded this scholarship helped me reenergize and focus on my studies because I knew that my efforts were being recognized. For the remainder of my undergraduate studies I challenged myself to perform at a level worthy of this award.”
Now pursuing Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Skoff adds. “With my continued efforts in the field of chemistry I truly aspire to carry on the principles set forth by Dr. Doremus.”
For more information and to get involved, please contact Mary McGee, director of development, CU Foundation, at 303-541-1470 or via e-mail at mary.mcgee@cufund.org.