PAPERS, 1906-1949, n.d.
James Caldwell McCullough taught chemistry at Oberlin for four decades. He was active in college and community affairs, and on his own initiative, cultured his interests in metallurgy and photography. McCullough was born in Mansfield, Ohio on 15 August 1884 to Dr. (MD) Adam Hales and Alice Carey Caldwell McCullough. Unfortunately, little is known about his youth and teen years.
McCullough received his BS and MS from the Case School of Applied Science (now part of Case Western Reserve University) in 1906 and 1910, respectively. After completing his bachelor degree, McCullough worked as a chemist for the Dow Chemical Company in Midland, Michigan, until he accepted the position of Instructor of Chemistry at Oberlin College in 1907.
At Oberlin, among fellow colleagues William Chapin and Harry N. Holmes, McCullough taught theory of industrial chemistry, inorganic preparations, food chemistry, and photography. He was an assistant to Professor Frank Fanning Jewett. However, physical chemistry eventually became his major responsibility. In McCullough's Memorial Minute (Oberlin Alumni Magazine, January 1965), Luke Steiner (OC '24 and chairman of the chemistry department) praised McCullough's laboratory experiments and his talent for instrumentation. Apparently, McCullough was so adept in the use of scientific apparatuses that colleagues and research students would seek his assistance in designing and assembling apparatuses or in diagnosing difficulties with instruments.
In 1911, McCullough was promoted to associate and, in 1926, after taking summer graduate courses in chemistry and radioactivity at the University of Chicago (1913-14), he was promoted to full professor over the opposition of Holmes. He took sabbatical leaves in 1946-47, to pursue graduate studies in chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley, and in 1935-36, he toured more than thirty colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, to attend classes and study methods.
He served as secretary and an acoustical consultant on the Location, Plans, and Construction of College Buildings Committee (1928-34). During his service, the committee considered proposals to renovate the Men's Building (now Wilder Hall) and to build several freshman dormitories. However, aside from laying the groundwork for the construction of Hall Auditorium, the College's Buildings Committee, during McCullough's terms, did not create any lasting impression on campus.
McCullough, however, had a great sense of civic responsibility. During the "Great Depression," he participated in the Oberlin Relief Program. For twelve years (1934-46), he was a member of the Oberlin Village Council and served as vice chairman, chairman (1945), and police judge (1945) while rarely missing a meeting. At times, McCullough was the acting mayor of Oberlin. He also had an active religious life. McCullough and his wife attended the Second Congregational Church in Oberlin until 1920, then First Church where he was a member of the board of deacons, and where he helped restore the interior of the church to its nineteenth century luster.
McCullough's lifelong interests included physical chemistry, metallography, metal welding, and photography. He was a longtime member and past president of the Oberlin Exchange Club. Professional societies readily recognized him, as he received a fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1933) and memberships in the American Association of University Professors, the American Chemical Society (1918), Sigma Xi, and Tau Beta Pi.
He was also noted in Who's Who in American Chemistry (1949) and American Men of Science (1949) after publishing "Blast Lamp for Natural Gas," in Journal of the American Chemical Society, 1915; "Welding Thermocouples in the Electric Arc," and "Prevention of Case Hardening by Copper Plating" in Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 1920 and 1924; and "The Protective Action of Copper in Case Carburizing," in Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, 1922. After undertaking special research for the Conklin Fountain Pen Company in 1920-21, McCullough patented a technique for welding high chromium alloy to gold for fountain pen tips.
McCullough married Mary Uel Parsons (1884-1975), a 1907 graduate of Oberlin College, on 9 September 1907 at the First Congregational Church, Mansfield, Ohio. They had two children, Katharine Caldwell McCullough (AB '32, 1911- ) and Uel Parsons McCullough (AB '36, 1913-1985). Katharine later married Albert Grant.
Upon his retirement from teaching in 1949, Oberlin named McCullough an emeritus professor. He maintained his legal residence in Oberlin, but toured the countryıs national parks by car and trailer. These travels continued until his health forced them to assume a more permanent residence on Mission Bay near San Diego. James McCullough died in San Diego, California on 7 November 1963 of an unknown illness.
Sources Consulted:
Faculty File of James Caldwell McCullough, Alumni Records (RG 28/4), and the papers of James Caldwell McCullough (RG 30/53), OCA. Student Files of Mary Parsons McCullough and Uel Parsons McCullough (RG 28/3), OCA. Case Files of James Caldwell McCullough, Edward Dickinson, and William H. Chapin. The Oberlin News, 10 September 1907.
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