Blake R Van Leer

Van Leer was born in Mangum, Oklahoma. After his father's death in 1897 he became an orphan without family and grew up in a Masonic Orphanage in Galveston, Texas. He graduated with honours from Purdue University in 1915 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. After World War I, he studied at University of Caen in France and returned to Berkeley where he received an M.S. in mechanical engineering. He later received a second master's degree from Purdue. Van Leer would also receive two honorary doctorates from Washington and Jefferson College and Purdue. In 1924 he married Ella Lillian Wall in Berkeley, California. He was awarded a traveling scholarship from American Society of Mechanical Engineers to study at University of Munich. In the 1920's he worked as an engineer for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and invented the California pipe method for measuring water.[1]

His daughter Maryly Van Leer Peck also became an engineer[2] and college president.

From 1932 to 1937 he was a Dean at the University of Florida.[3] During his tenure at Florida, he also worked with the Florida State Planning Board and directed a number of engineering institutes in the state. In 1937 he became the Dean of the School of Engineering at NC State University. While there he started the graduate program for engineering. Later, he was initiated as an honorary of the NCSU chapter of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity. Around 1940, with the permission of Dean Harrelson, Van Leer gave half his time towards the North Carolina Office for Defense orders. He resigned his post as Dean in 1942 to take a military leave.[4]

Van Leer's military career started with his appointment as second Lieutenant Engineer in the Officers Reserve Corps for the U.S. Army in July 1917. He was promoted after World War I and became a Captain. Van Leer was awarded the French Croix de Guerre.[5] He was reappointed in 1925 as a Major for the Corps of Engineers and later became Lieutenant Colonel in October 1942 for the Army Specialized Training Division. He was promoted to Colonel the following year and remained active during several periods of his life, until he retired in 1953.[6]

Main entrance to the Van Leer Building on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology

After World War II Van Leer returned to become the President of Georgia Tech. During his tenure the school, significantly expanded Georgia Tech, admitted women for the first time[7] and began steps toward integration.[8] Van Leer also had a focus on making Atlanta the "MIT of the South."[9] In 1946 Georgia Tech secured about $240,000 annually in sponsored research and purchased an electron microscope for $13,000 (equivalent to $170,000 in 2019), the first such instrument in the Southeastern United States and one of few in the United States at the time.[10] The Research Building was expanded, and a $300,000 (equivalent to $3,000,000 in 2019) Westinghouse A-C network calculator was given to Georgia Tech by Georgia Power in 1947.[11] In 1953, Van Leer assisted with helping Lockheed Corporation establish a research and development and production line in Marietta. Later in 1955 he helped set up a committee to assist with establishing a nuclear research facility, which would later become the Neely Nuclear Research Center.[12] When the Georgia Board of Regents ruled that all money received in a year had to be spent that year; this was problematic because most government contracts span multiple years. Van Leer created a solution, a non-profit corporation that would manage contracts for research services and subsequently hire the Engineering Experiment Station to perform the research. The new organization would also handle patents garnered through research, and distribute funds garnered from contracts and patents as needed.[13] Van Leer was instrumental in making the school and Atlanta the first major research center in the American South. The building that houses Tech's school of Electrical and Computer Engineering bears his name.[14][15]

Globe

Van Leer played a crucial role in establishing the Southern Polytechnic State University now known as Kennesaw State University and considered its founder. After World War II, the need for technicians spiked due to a major economic shift in Georgia from being a largely agricultural state to one that is more industry heavy.[18] The new industries required technicians to bridge the growing gap between engineers and craftsmen, effectively the gap between research/development and building/implementing. At the time, most technical institutes in the United States were in the northeastern states; thus the need for a technical institute in the south was great.[19]

In response to the growing demand, the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Colonel Blake R. Van Leer, sought to establish a technical institute program in Georgia. In 1945 he was approached by the Associated Industries of Georgia (AIG) who shared their common desire to have such a program and offered Van Leer their support. It took years for Van Leer to convince the Board of Regents to give Georgia Tech authorization to establish a technical institute. On October 8, 1947 the authorization was granted. The location chosen for the fledgling institute was a Naval Air Station in Chamblee, GA, which eventually became the site of DeKalb–Peachtree Airport.[20]^:1 The first director was to be Professor Lawrence V. Johnson, and it was going to open under the name of The Technical Institute.[20]^:4 On March 24, 1948 The Technical Institute held registration for the spring quarter and 116 students enrolled (all but 10 World War II veterans), including one young woman named Barbara Hudson.[20]^:19,23[21] The institute had a staff of 12.[21]

Long after his death, Van Leer continues to be remembered through scholarships awards, a building that bears his name, The 1956 Sugar Bowl, frequent stories about his tenure featured on various online news channels and his descendants.[22]

Many of Van Leer's descendants would achieve notable careers in engineering, academia and or technology, e.g.:

• Maryly Van Leer Peck (1930–2011), was an American academic, and the first female President of a Florida Community College, first female chemical engineer graduate from Vanderbilt University, first woman to receive an M.S. and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Florida. Peck also founded the Guam Community College
• Captain Blake Van Leer (1926–1997), held several prominent positions in the United States Navy as a Captain, engineer and Seabee.[23] He received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, a Civil Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master's degree in Civil Engineering from Princeton University.[24]

• History of Georgia Tech#Postwar changes and unrest

• Robert C. McMath; Ronald H. Bayor; James E. Brittain; Lawrence Foster; August W. Giebelhaus; Germaine M. Reed (1985). Engineering the New South: Georgia Tech 1885–1985. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-0784-X.
• United States Bureau of Reclamation (1953). Measurement of Water for Irrigation Projects. Denver, CO: United States Bureau of Reclamation.

• Van Leer family genealogy
• GIT profile from library
• Georgia Tech celebrates 50 years of women
• Official Army Register - 1956