Arthur Arton Hamerschlag (November 25, 1872 – July 20, 1927) was an American electrical and mechanical engineer who served as the first

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Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

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Early life

He was born in

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to immigrants from

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He graduated in 1889 with a specialization in electricity, and did field work working on electric plants in

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, and throughout the U.S. Back in New York City he worked for both St. George's Trade School and the New York Trade School. His reputation there brought him to the attention of

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, who was looking for leadership for his new educational venture in Pittsburgh.

Carnegie Tech years

Carnegie and William H. Frew, chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Carnegie Institute and Carnegie's lawyer in Pittsburgh, hired Hamerschlag in 1903 as the first director of the fledgling Carnegie Technical Schools, as the project was first called. Its aim was not to compete with the nearby

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, but to provide practical vocational training in the industrial trades and to offer 3-year diplomas, not bachelor's degrees. And so the building of the campus began, and the hiring of faculty, and the school was launched. Hamerschlag built the campus in partnership with Carnegie himself and the architect

Henry Hornbostel Henry Hornbostel (August 15, 1867 – December 13, 1961) was an American architect and educator. Hornbostel designed more than 225 buildings, bridges, and monuments in the United States. Twenty-two of his designs are listed on the National Regis ...

. While the campus grew, the school found it difficult to compete. Industrial unions had their own apprenticeship programs, and it was challenging to attract and retain faculty, most of whom preferred to work for degree-granting institutions. So in 1912, the Carnegie Technical Schools were renamed Carnegie Institute of Technology. Hamerschlag then led the development of bachelor's and master's degree programs, and the college took off. When Andrew Carnegie died in 1919, the funding of the college, which had come from Carnegie himself, came under scrutiny by the estate, now controlled by the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

. It commissioned a survey in 1921 and the report recommended that the college broaden its sources of funds for the future. Hamerschlag, who did not have a seat on the board, felt excluded from the decision and the new direction being charted. He resigned in 1922. He returned to New York and reestablished an engineering practice. Hamerschlag died in 1927. At Carnegie Mellon, Hamerschlag’s name is still honored through Hamerschlag Hall, the home of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as Hamerschlag House, a freshman dorm which was all-male since its founding in the ‘60s but was made co-ed in 2018.

References

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Ancestry.com
American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Presidents of Carnegie Mellon University Converts to Anglicanism from Judaism 1872 births 1927 deaths {{pittsburgh-stub