Allan married Roberta Hollingsworth, the Dean of Women at U.Va., in 1953.
"The United States has provided many giants in the field of corrosion to the scientific community. It was my privilege to be a student and long-time friend of a man -- Allan Talbott Gwathmey -- who developed the metal single crystal as a tool for understanding the surface properties of metals.... To me and to other close friends he was known as "Pete", an address not used widely among his colleagues at other institutions.
Allan Gwathmey was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 29, 1903. He attended preparatory school in Richmond and received his B.S. degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1923. Following several years of employment as an engineer, he continued his schooling and obtained a B.S. in Electrochemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1928. After several years of industrial research, Allan Gwathmey entered the Graduate School at the University of Virginia during the severe depression years of the early 1930’s and earned the Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 1938. He chose to do his thesis research in low voltage electron diffraction, a field which later became popularly known as LEED.... He continued at the University of Virginia as a research associate until his appointment as a member of the Chemistry Department faculty in about 1947 and remained a member of the faculty until his death.
His interests at the University of Virginia were campus-wide. He lived for many years in the Colonnade Club on the Lawn, that beautiful terraced green lined with grand trees that connects Cabell Hall with the building that symbolizes the University, the Rotunda. He fought in many ways to retain the dignity and charm of the Colonnade Club to the end that it was the focal point for faculty social life. He served on the University Senate and did what he could to encourage de-emphasis of intercollegiate athletics. His viewpoints in this regard were different from those of many of his friends, associates, and students, but these views did not inhibit his friendships. He was called on by the President of the University many times to serve as host for distinguished visitors. He was particularly talented in hosting female visitors: I remember particularly seeing his talent in action while charming and entertaining Lady Astor. He was a constant thorn in the sides of the deans and presidents, when they were not aggressively seeking to build excellence into departments....
Prof. Gwathmey treated his graduate students as one big family. They were welcome to confide in him and to seek his advice on technical as well as non-technical matters. His office door was always open and be would interrupt whatever he was doing to talk to students. Since he married late in life and had no children of his own, his students filled a void in his life. When things did not go well in the laboratory or when the demands of the experiment were greater than the available resources, his favorite expression was "The toughening discipline of a complex experiment". Years later when his students communicated among themselves by letters, wire, or telephone, it was not unusual to have a post script which read TTDOACE.
Professor Gwathmey did not make the accumulation of material things as a goal of his life... Honoraria received from lectureships were either returned to the sender to use in advancing a charitable cause or were donated to non-profit organizations in which he was interested. He drove an old car and the expensive pieces of clothing he often wore were gifts.
He loved his native state with a passion. The beauty of the Lawn at the University, the Spirit of VMI and his admiration for Thomas Jefferson were often subjects for comment or discussion among his friends and almost always crept into his public lectures....
Dr. Gwathmey was among the first to recognize the importance of metal single crystals as a research tool in studying many surface phenomena. The development of the semiconductor industry and the need to understand the solid state behavior of single crystals of silicon and germanium ran parallel to the research at the University of Virginia on metal crystals....
Allan Gwathmey was not blessed with good health and was a rather frail child. His father died while Allan was young and this event made him aware of the importance of good health. In the early 1950’s it was recognized that he had a severe case of diabetes and he soon became a "brittle diabetic". His pockets always contained sugar, candy, or fruit so that he could titrate the injected insulin as his body advised him. Blackouts were not uncommon in the early days of his treatment and one of them resulted in a broken knee. In 1961 he began to experience impairment in the muscles that control breathing, swallowing and talking. Chemotherapy was of some help, but a creeping paralysis began that culminated in his death on May 12, 1963. The last few months of his life were difficult beyond expression but he never lost his optimism and his interest in the activities of his students and of the Virginia Institute for Scientific Research. It was an unpleasant experience to see one you admire conquered by a mysterious ailment one is hopeless to fight.
An excellent summary of Professor Gwathmey’s character is contained in a memorial statement prepared by his friends and presented before the faculty of the University of Virginia after his death: "In the University, he will be remembered for his ideals, for the depth of his convictions and for his dignified presentation of them. When called upon to defend his position, he was always polite but never yielded where principles were involved. He could preserve outward calm under great stress and his earnestness and carefully reasoned arguments seldom failed to command respect even from those who could not agree with him. In the course of time, many of his proposals have come to be accepted and adopted but the spirit which compelled him to fight for principles and causes and for academic excellence and efficiency within the University could never rest. For others, he fought many battles in an entirely selfless way with an intensity and courage which will not soon be forgotten".
Henry Leidheiser, Jr.
Center for Surface and Coatings Research
Lehigh University
July 29, 1975"
"The United States has provided many giants in the field of corrosion to the scientific community. It was my privilege to be a student and long-time friend of a man -- Allan Talbott Gwathmey -- who developed the metal single crystal as a tool for understanding the surface properties of metals.... To me and to other close friends he was known as "Pete", an address not used widely among his colleagues at other institutions.
Allan Gwathmey was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 29, 1903. He attended preparatory school in Richmond and received his B.S. degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1923. Following several years of employment as an engineer, he continued his schooling and obtained a B.S. in Electrochemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1928. After several years of industrial research, Allan Gwathmey entered the Graduate School at the University of Virginia during the severe depression years of the early 1930’s and earned the Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 1938. He chose to do his thesis research in low voltage electron diffraction, a field which later became popularly known as LEED.... He continued at the University of Virginia as a research associate until his appointment as a member of the Chemistry Department faculty in about 1947 and remained a member of the faculty until his death.
His interests at the University of Virginia were campus-wide. He lived for many years in the Colonnade Club on the Lawn, that beautiful terraced green lined with grand trees that connects Cabell Hall with the building that symbolizes the University, the Rotunda. He fought in many ways to retain the dignity and charm of the Colonnade Club to the end that it was the focal point for faculty social life. He served on the University Senate and did what he could to encourage de-emphasis of intercollegiate athletics. His viewpoints in this regard were different from those of many of his friends, associates, and students, but these views did not inhibit his friendships. He was called on by the President of the University many times to serve as host for distinguished visitors. He was particularly talented in hosting female visitors: I remember particularly seeing his talent in action while charming and entertaining Lady Astor. He was a constant thorn in the sides of the deans and presidents, when they were not aggressively seeking to build excellence into departments....
Prof. Gwathmey treated his graduate students as one big family. They were welcome to confide in him and to seek his advice on technical as well as non-technical matters. His office door was always open and be would interrupt whatever he was doing to talk to students. Since he married late in life and had no children of his own, his students filled a void in his life. When things did not go well in the laboratory or when the demands of the experiment were greater than the available resources, his favorite expression was "The toughening discipline of a complex experiment". Years later when his students communicated among themselves by letters, wire, or telephone, it was not unusual to have a post script which read TTDOACE.
Professor Gwathmey did not make the accumulation of material things as a goal of his life... Honoraria received from lectureships were either returned to the sender to use in advancing a charitable cause or were donated to non-profit organizations in which he was interested. He drove an old car and the expensive pieces of clothing he often wore were gifts.
He loved his native state with a passion. The beauty of the Lawn at the University, the Spirit of VMI and his admiration for Thomas Jefferson were often subjects for comment or discussion among his friends and almost always crept into his public lectures....
Dr. Gwathmey was among the first to recognize the importance of metal single crystals as a research tool in studying many surface phenomena. The development of the semiconductor industry and the need to understand the solid state behavior of single crystals of silicon and germanium ran parallel to the research at the University of Virginia on metal crystals....
Allan Gwathmey was not blessed with good health and was a rather frail child. His father died while Allan was young and this event made him aware of the importance of good health. In the early 1950’s it was recognized that he had a severe case of diabetes and he soon became a "brittle diabetic". His pockets always contained sugar, candy, or fruit so that he could titrate the injected insulin as his body advised him. Blackouts were not uncommon in the early days of his treatment and one of them resulted in a broken knee. In 1961 he began to experience impairment in the muscles that control breathing, swallowing and talking. Chemotherapy was of some help, but a creeping paralysis began that culminated in his death on May 12, 1963. The last few months of his life were difficult beyond expression but he never lost his optimism and his interest in the activities of his students and of the Virginia Institute for Scientific Research. It was an unpleasant experience to see one you admire conquered by a mysterious ailment one is hopeless to fight.
An excellent summary of Professor Gwathmey’s character is contained in a memorial statement prepared by his friends and presented before the faculty of the University of Virginia after his death: "In the University, he will be remembered for his ideals, for the depth of his convictions and for his dignified presentation of them. When called upon to defend his position, he was always polite but never yielded where principles were involved. He could preserve outward calm under great stress and his earnestness and carefully reasoned arguments seldom failed to command respect even from those who could not agree with him. In the course of time, many of his proposals have come to be accepted and adopted but the spirit which compelled him to fight for principles and causes and for academic excellence and efficiency within the University could never rest. For others, he fought many battles in an entirely selfless way with an intensity and courage which will not soon be forgotten".
Henry Leidheiser, Jr.
Center for Surface and Coatings Research
Lehigh University
July 29, 1975"
Allan married Roberta Hollingsworth, the Dean of Women at U.Va., in 1953.
"The United States has provided many giants in the field of corrosion to the scientific community. It was my privilege to be a student and long-time friend of a man -- Allan Talbott Gwathmey -- who developed the metal single crystal as a tool for understanding the surface properties of metals.... To me and to other close friends he was known as "Pete", an address not used widely among his colleagues at other institutions.
Allan Gwathmey was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 29, 1903. He attended preparatory school in Richmond and received his B.S. degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1923. Following several years of employment as an engineer, he continued his schooling and obtained a B.S. in Electrochemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1928. After several years of industrial research, Allan Gwathmey entered the Graduate School at the University of Virginia during the severe depression years of the early 1930’s and earned the Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 1938. He chose to do his thesis research in low voltage electron diffraction, a field which later became popularly known as LEED.... He continued at the University of Virginia as a research associate until his appointment as a member of the Chemistry Department faculty in about 1947 and remained a member of the faculty until his death.
His interests at the University of Virginia were campus-wide. He lived for many years in the Colonnade Club on the Lawn, that beautiful terraced green lined with grand trees that connects Cabell Hall with the building that symbolizes the University, the Rotunda. He fought in many ways to retain the dignity and charm of the Colonnade Club to the end that it was the focal point for faculty social life. He served on the University Senate and did what he could to encourage de-emphasis of intercollegiate athletics. His viewpoints in this regard were different from those of many of his friends, associates, and students, but these views did not inhibit his friendships. He was called on by the President of the University many times to serve as host for distinguished visitors. He was particularly talented in hosting female visitors: I remember particularly seeing his talent in action while charming and entertaining Lady Astor. He was a constant thorn in the sides of the deans and presidents, when they were not aggressively seeking to build excellence into departments....
Prof. Gwathmey treated his graduate students as one big family. They were welcome to confide in him and to seek his advice on technical as well as non-technical matters. His office door was always open and be would interrupt whatever he was doing to talk to students. Since he married late in life and had no children of his own, his students filled a void in his life. When things did not go well in the laboratory or when the demands of the experiment were greater than the available resources, his favorite expression was "The toughening discipline of a complex experiment". Years later when his students communicated among themselves by letters, wire, or telephone, it was not unusual to have a post script which read TTDOACE.
Professor Gwathmey did not make the accumulation of material things as a goal of his life... Honoraria received from lectureships were either returned to the sender to use in advancing a charitable cause or were donated to non-profit organizations in which he was interested. He drove an old car and the expensive pieces of clothing he often wore were gifts.
He loved his native state with a passion. The beauty of the Lawn at the University, the Spirit of VMI and his admiration for Thomas Jefferson were often subjects for comment or discussion among his friends and almost always crept into his public lectures....
Dr. Gwathmey was among the first to recognize the importance of metal single crystals as a research tool in studying many surface phenomena. The development of the semiconductor industry and the need to understand the solid state behavior of single crystals of silicon and germanium ran parallel to the research at the University of Virginia on metal crystals....
Allan Gwathmey was not blessed with good health and was a rather frail child. His father died while Allan was young and this event made him aware of the importance of good health. In the early 1950’s it was recognized that he had a severe case of diabetes and he soon became a "brittle diabetic". His pockets always contained sugar, candy, or fruit so that he could titrate the injected insulin as his body advised him. Blackouts were not uncommon in the early days of his treatment and one of them resulted in a broken knee. In 1961 he began to experience impairment in the muscles that control breathing, swallowing and talking. Chemotherapy was of some help, but a creeping paralysis began that culminated in his death on May 12, 1963. The last few months of his life were difficult beyond expression but he never lost his optimism and his interest in the activities of his students and of the Virginia Institute for Scientific Research. It was an unpleasant experience to see one you admire conquered by a mysterious ailment one is hopeless to fight.
An excellent summary of Professor Gwathmey’s character is contained in a memorial statement prepared by his friends and presented before the faculty of the University of Virginia after his death: "In the University, he will be remembered for his ideals, for the depth of his convictions and for his dignified presentation of them. When called upon to defend his position, he was always polite but never yielded where principles were involved. He could preserve outward calm under great stress and his earnestness and carefully reasoned arguments seldom failed to command respect even from those who could not agree with him. In the course of time, many of his proposals have come to be accepted and adopted but the spirit which compelled him to fight for principles and causes and for academic excellence and efficiency within the University could never rest. For others, he fought many battles in an entirely selfless way with an intensity and courage which will not soon be forgotten".
Henry Leidheiser, Jr.
Center for Surface and Coatings Research
Lehigh University
July 29, 1975"
"The United States has provided many giants in the field of corrosion to the scientific community. It was my privilege to be a student and long-time friend of a man -- Allan Talbott Gwathmey -- who developed the metal single crystal as a tool for understanding the surface properties of metals.... To me and to other close friends he was known as "Pete", an address not used widely among his colleagues at other institutions.
Allan Gwathmey was born in Richmond, Virginia on July 29, 1903. He attended preparatory school in Richmond and received his B.S. degree from Virginia Military Institute in 1923. Following several years of employment as an engineer, he continued his schooling and obtained a B.S. in Electrochemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1928. After several years of industrial research, Allan Gwathmey entered the Graduate School at the University of Virginia during the severe depression years of the early 1930’s and earned the Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 1938. He chose to do his thesis research in low voltage electron diffraction, a field which later became popularly known as LEED.... He continued at the University of Virginia as a research associate until his appointment as a member of the Chemistry Department faculty in about 1947 and remained a member of the faculty until his death.
His interests at the University of Virginia were campus-wide. He lived for many years in the Colonnade Club on the Lawn, that beautiful terraced green lined with grand trees that connects Cabell Hall with the building that symbolizes the University, the Rotunda. He fought in many ways to retain the dignity and charm of the Colonnade Club to the end that it was the focal point for faculty social life. He served on the University Senate and did what he could to encourage de-emphasis of intercollegiate athletics. His viewpoints in this regard were different from those of many of his friends, associates, and students, but these views did not inhibit his friendships. He was called on by the President of the University many times to serve as host for distinguished visitors. He was particularly talented in hosting female visitors: I remember particularly seeing his talent in action while charming and entertaining Lady Astor. He was a constant thorn in the sides of the deans and presidents, when they were not aggressively seeking to build excellence into departments....
Prof. Gwathmey treated his graduate students as one big family. They were welcome to confide in him and to seek his advice on technical as well as non-technical matters. His office door was always open and be would interrupt whatever he was doing to talk to students. Since he married late in life and had no children of his own, his students filled a void in his life. When things did not go well in the laboratory or when the demands of the experiment were greater than the available resources, his favorite expression was "The toughening discipline of a complex experiment". Years later when his students communicated among themselves by letters, wire, or telephone, it was not unusual to have a post script which read TTDOACE.
Professor Gwathmey did not make the accumulation of material things as a goal of his life... Honoraria received from lectureships were either returned to the sender to use in advancing a charitable cause or were donated to non-profit organizations in which he was interested. He drove an old car and the expensive pieces of clothing he often wore were gifts.
He loved his native state with a passion. The beauty of the Lawn at the University, the Spirit of VMI and his admiration for Thomas Jefferson were often subjects for comment or discussion among his friends and almost always crept into his public lectures....
Dr. Gwathmey was among the first to recognize the importance of metal single crystals as a research tool in studying many surface phenomena. The development of the semiconductor industry and the need to understand the solid state behavior of single crystals of silicon and germanium ran parallel to the research at the University of Virginia on metal crystals....
Allan Gwathmey was not blessed with good health and was a rather frail child. His father died while Allan was young and this event made him aware of the importance of good health. In the early 1950’s it was recognized that he had a severe case of diabetes and he soon became a "brittle diabetic". His pockets always contained sugar, candy, or fruit so that he could titrate the injected insulin as his body advised him. Blackouts were not uncommon in the early days of his treatment and one of them resulted in a broken knee. In 1961 he began to experience impairment in the muscles that control breathing, swallowing and talking. Chemotherapy was of some help, but a creeping paralysis began that culminated in his death on May 12, 1963. The last few months of his life were difficult beyond expression but he never lost his optimism and his interest in the activities of his students and of the Virginia Institute for Scientific Research. It was an unpleasant experience to see one you admire conquered by a mysterious ailment one is hopeless to fight.
An excellent summary of Professor Gwathmey’s character is contained in a memorial statement prepared by his friends and presented before the faculty of the University of Virginia after his death: "In the University, he will be remembered for his ideals, for the depth of his convictions and for his dignified presentation of them. When called upon to defend his position, he was always polite but never yielded where principles were involved. He could preserve outward calm under great stress and his earnestness and carefully reasoned arguments seldom failed to command respect even from those who could not agree with him. In the course of time, many of his proposals have come to be accepted and adopted but the spirit which compelled him to fight for principles and causes and for academic excellence and efficiency within the University could never rest. For others, he fought many battles in an entirely selfless way with an intensity and courage which will not soon be forgotten".
Henry Leidheiser, Jr.
Center for Surface and Coatings Research
Lehigh University
July 29, 1975"
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