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STE PHEN MOORE ~ EN KS
1 901 -1974
BY JAMES B. AUSTIN
STEPHEN M. JENKS, who retired in 1966 as Executive Vice-
President Engineering and Research I'or the United States Steel
Corporation, died in Pittsburgh on April 12, 1974, at the age of'
seventy-three. During his forty years of' service with U.S. Steel, he
became one ol'the steel industry's best-known engineers and execu-
tives. Although he had been widely recognized within the company
I'or his engineering skill, he first came into national prominence as
General Superintendent of' the great Gary Steel Works, at Gary,
Indiana, during the years 1940 to 1949, when the production of'
that plant was critical For the war el'f'ort. In later years, as head of'
research, he exerted a prime influence on the development of' the
First large-scale continuous slab-casting Facility at Gary, and he
made significant contributions to the development and installation
of' automatic controls on rolling mills. Beyond these professional
achievements, he was as much interested in men as he was in
machinery and materials.
Stephen lends was born in Port Huron, Michigan, on February
18, 1901. Following early schooling there, he went to Cornell
University, I'rom which he received the degree of' Mechanical
Engineer in 1923. Al'ter graduation he worked I'or a brief' period as
a blast I'urnace blower at the Aliquippa Plant of' Jones and Laughlin
Steel Corporation. In 1925 he began his long association with U.S.
Steel by joining the American Steel and Wire Company, then a
subsidiary, as an engineer. Four years later he was transferred to
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Gary, Indiana, as a fuel engineer, but he returned to Pittsburgh in
1933 as a power engineer. He was promoted to Assistant Chief
Engineer in 1935, and a year later became Chief Engineer of the
Construction Division of Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation,
another subsidiary of U.S. Steel. In 1937 he returned to Gary as
Chief Engineer of Gary Steel Works and in that same year was
named Assistant General Superintendent. In 1940 he was ap-
pointed General Superintendent.
Nine years later, he was made Manager of Operations for the
Chicago District of Carnegie-Illinois Steel, but in 1950 he was
named Vice-President- Operations with headquarters in
Pittsburgh. When Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation was merged
into U.S. Steel in 1951, he was appointed Vice-President of Man-
ufacturing. In 1959 he became Executive Vice-President-
Engineering and Research, a position he held until his retirement
in 1966.
In recognition of his many outstanding accomplishments, in
1956 the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petro-
leum Engineers gave Stephen Oaks the Benjamin F. Fairless
Award with the citation: "For distinguished achievements in iron
and steel production and ferrous metallurgy." When the United
States inaugurated a series of technical exchanges with the Soviet
Union in 1958, the first delegation to visit Russia was a group
representing the American steel industry. Stephen funks was a
prominent and valuable member of this team. In 1966 he was made
a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and in
1968 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
From 1970 to 1972 he served on the Ad Hoc Panel on the
Abatement of Sulfur Dioxide Emissions from Industrial Sources of
the NAE-NRC Committee on Air Quality Management.
Among his special technical interests were the blast furnace and
the open hearth processes that he was constantly trying to improve.
He was a strong advocate of the use of sintered ore in the former
and was much concerned about the development of better reirac-
tories for both of them. What he saw in the Soviet Union during his
visit there led him to intensify his efforts to expand the use of sinter
within U.S. Steel, and he became a leader in the design and
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construction of large ore-sintering plants. He also stressed the need
for improved refractories and for better designs for open hearth
furnaces.
One of Stephen finks' most notable engineering efforts, how-
ever, was the building of a defense armor plant within six months
during World War II. Under a contract placed by the Defense
Plant Corporation with U.S. Steel in April 1942, he directed the
design and construction of a complete seventy-five-acre plant for
rolling, flame cutting, heat treating and testing armor plate for
tank tops. This involved moving a complete rolling mill and its
motor drive from Gary Steel Works to a new location about a mile
away. The plant went into production in October 1942.
In spite of his many professional responsibilities, he always
found time to engage in civic affairs. While at Gary he was Director,
and at one time First Vice-President, of the Indiana State Chamber
of Commerce. He served for a time on the Indiana Governor's Tax
Study Commission. He was Director of the Gary Industrial Foun-
dation and of the Community Chest. Throughout World War II he
was Chairman of the Gary Chapter of the American Red Cross. He
was a Trustee of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and a
member of the Cornell University Council.
He had a special interest in young people. He was for some time
President of the Allegheny Council of the Boy Scouts of America
and served on the Boy Scouts Executive Board. Jenks was also
named Chairman of a Youth Service Committee, which made some
specific recommendations aimed at curbing youth crime in A1-
legheny County.
But these bare bones of Stephen Jenks' career do not do him
justice, because they only hint at one of his outstanding
characteristics his great friendliness and warmth, which contrib-
uted so much to his success as a leader of men and in his participa-
tion in public affairs. He obviously liked people, was considerate of
them, and was always ready to help them. In matters of engineer-
ing he could be precise and demanding, but yo~always knew that
you had his support at all times. So he has left behind him not only
some technical monuments to progress in the steel industry, but
also a fine example of leadership and the art of managing men.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
gary steel
