Samuel Ray Scholes
January 22, 1884 - August 16, 1974

Born January 22, 1884 in Marquette, Green Lake County, Wisconsin, Dr. Scholes attended Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin, receiving an A.B. degree in 1905. He majored in mathematics and chemistry at Ripon and held a fellowship in mathematics during his senior year. Dr. Scholes attended the University of Chicago during the summer of 1907 and entered the Yale University Graduate School in 1908. While working toward his doctorate he served as an instructor in the chemical laboratory of the Sheffield Scientific School for two years. In 1910 he won the Loomis Fellowship in chemistry. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1911 at the end of the fellowship year.

Dr. Scholes was appointed immediately to the H. C. Fry Glass Company Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh under R. K. Duncan. At the end of the fellowship term in 1913, he became chemist for the Fry Glass Company, Rochester, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1920. During his association with the Fry company, the Industrial Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh became Mellon Institute and he assumed the part-time position of assistant director in 1914. He gave up the work at Mellon Institute in 1917 to devote full time to the Fry plant.

While at the University of Pittsburgh and Mellon Institute, Dr. Scholes filled teaching assignments in general and industrial chemistry and fuels. He also lectured in chemistry at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, during World War I.

In 1920 he went to Lonaconing, Maryland, as superintendent of the Utility Glass Works. A year later he joined the Federal Glass Company as a chemist and remained with this firm until 1929 working on many production problems. During this period he also worked out a set of factors for density calculation and during 1926-1928 gave several series of lectures on glass in the Department of Ceramic Engineering at Ohio State University and advised on thesis work there.

Dr. Scholes joined the staff of the Fostoria Glass Company, Moundsville, West Virginia, in 1929 as technical director and chemist. He returned to his former position with the Federal Glass Company in 1931. A year later he was appointed professor of glass technology at the State University of New York College of Ceramics at Alfred, Alfred, New York. From 1946 to 1948 he was dean of the College of Ceramics and in addition to his professorship, he served as associate dean from 1948 to 1952, the year of his retirement. An honorary Sc.D. degree was conferred on him by Alfred University in 1952.

Holder of several patents, Dr. Scholes had more than 75 published articles and papers to his credit. He edited and wrote several books and had also translated numerous articles on glass from German journals.

He became the 24th Honorary Member of The American Ceramic Society during ceremonies conducted at the general session of the 60th Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1958. As The Society's highest honor was bestowed on Dr. Scholes, he was cited for "his noted accomplishments in the field of the ceramic arts and sciences as a scholar and educator, valued Member of this Society, crusader for the American ceramic industry, and faithful friend of his associates and students."

Dr. Scholes was a member of The American Ceramic Society since 1917. He as a Charter Fellow and served as Dean of the Fellows in 1939. Active in the Glass Division, he was chairman in 1920 and served as secretary from 1935 to 1948. The Pittsburgh Section conferred its Bleininger Award on Dr. Scholes in 1952.

Dr. Scholes was also a member of the American Society for Testing Materials, the Society for Engineering Education, Keramos, Alpha Chi Sigma, Sigma Xi, and a fellow of the British Society of Glass Technology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.