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Memorial Tributes: Volume 3 (1989)

Chapter: John Earl Frazier

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Suggested Citation:"John Earl Frazier." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
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Page 170
Suggested Citation:"John Earl Frazier." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 171
Suggested Citation:"John Earl Frazier." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 172
Suggested Citation:"John Earl Frazier." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 173

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JOHN EARL FRAZIER 1902-1985 BY J. E. BURKE JOHN EARL FRAZIER chairman of the board and treasurer of Frazier-Simplex Inc., died on January I, ~ 985, in the Washington Hospital in Washington, Pennsylvania, at the age of eighty-two. Frances, his wife of forty-seven years, died in 1983. Ear} Frazier had been associated for forty-nine years with Frazier-Simplex Inc., a company founded in 1918 by his fa- ther, Chauncey Ear! Frazier. Ear! Frazier had built the com- pany into a diversified organization that provided feasibility studies, supplied equipment, designed and constructed en- tire plants, and consulted on virtually every aspect of the glass industry with many of the glass plants in the United States and around the world. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1978. Ear! Frazier was born in Houseville, Pennsylvania, a com- munity near Pittsburgh, on July 4, 1902, and spent his entire life in the Pittsburgh area. He graduated from Washington High School and received a B.S. in 1922 from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, where he concurrently served as an instructor in chemistry from 1919 to 1920. Fra- zier received an M.S. in chemical engineering from the Mas- sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1924 and a D.Sc. from the University of Brazil in 1938. He was a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania. ~7~

172 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES For several years after graduating from MTT, Ear] Frazier worked as a chemical engineer at Owens-~linois Glass Com- pany in Clarion, Pennsylvania. He then joiner! Frazier- Simplex as a fuel engineer; he became president of the com- pany in ~ 945 and continued as its chief executive officer until his death. While at Frazier-Simplex, he was granted, as in- ventor or coinventor, fifty patents in the glass technology fielcI. As a technical leacler in his company, Ear! was particu- larly effective in advancing the use of blanket batch charges and in promoting the use of electric glass melting rather than the standard gas firing technique. Frazier was an ardent supporter of the American Ceramic Society (ACS) not only of its glass division but also of the society as a whole. He was always active in the society's affairs ant! saw it grow enormously as the field of ceramics ex- pancled, especially over the past couple of decades. He was a fellow of the society ant! served in many positions, including those of treasurer (from 1968 to 1969) and president (from 1970 to 1971~. ACS awarded him its John Jeppson Medal and Award in 1976 and the Albert Victor Bleininger Award in 1969 and selected him as a distinguished life member in 1972. He is foncIly rememberer! by many people in the society for the delightful luncheons he gave annually in Pittsburgh at the time of the Bleininger Award presentation. Each year he would introduce all of the many attendees by name and then deliver a brief summary of their accomplishments—a prodigious feat of memory. Ear! Frazier was active in many other organizations. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Ceramic Engi- neering Department at the University of Illinois and was a life member of the board of trustees of Washington and ~ef- ferson College; he was also active at Pennsylvania State Uni- versity, where the Keramos-Frazier Ceramic Library was named in his honor. In abolition, Ear! Frazier was active in local community af- fairs. At various times he served as chairman of the board of

JOHN EARL FRAZIER 173 trustees of the Washington Hospital and was president of the Washington Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania Western State School, now Western Center, anti served on several govern- ing boards of other business and fraternal organizations. Ear! Frazier will be greatly missed by his many associates in the glass ant! ceramics professions and those in his other areas of activity as well.

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