Clarence Linus Cory (September 4, 1872 – August 2, 1937) was an American engineer and educator who is known as the father of Electrical Engineering at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Early life

Cory was born in

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

, to Thomas Cory and Carrie Stoney. Cory's father was an inventor and served as a topographer in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

Education

In 1889, Cory received a degree of bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in Electrical Engineering from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

at the age of 16. In 1891 he received a degree of Master of Mechanical Engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Career

Cory was appointed to a position of professor of electrical engineering at Highland Park College in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1891. In 1892, he became the first Professor of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. During his early years at Berkeley, Cory established Electrical Laboratories that supplied light and power to the entire Berkeley campus. During a sabbatical leave in 1900 he became a co-founder of engineering firm Cory, Meredith and Allen in San Francisco. In 1908, Cory was appointed the dean of College of Mechanics at Berkeley. Clarence Cory was awarded a doctoral degree in engineering from

in 1914. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Cory obtained a leave of absence from Berkeley to accept a "dollar-a-year" job of assistant director of nitrate and powder plants in West Virginia, where he was responsible for power production. He became professor emeritus in 1931.

Personal life

Cory married Mayme Pritchard on December 25, 1905, in Harlan, Iowa."Who's Who in America". Volume 5, p. 412. Cory's older brother,

Harry Thomas Cory Harry Thomas Cory (May 27, 1870 – March 22, 1955) was an American engineer and professor. Biography Harry Thomas Cory was born in Montmorenci, Indiana, the son of Thomas and Carrie (Stoney) Cory. Cory received his bachelor's degree in mechan ...

, was an industrial engineer. Cory Hall, a building on the

campus of the University of California, Berkeley The campus of the University of California, Berkeley and its surrounding community are home to a number of notable buildings by early 20th-century campus architect John Galen Howard, his peer Bernard Maybeck (best known for the San Francisco Pala ...

, was completed in 1950 and named after Cory.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cory, Clarence 1872 births 1937 deaths People from Lafayette, Indiana Purdue University College of Engineering alumni Cornell University College of Engineering alumni American engineers UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty