A History of Science at Hanover College
100 Points of Light:
A History of Science at Hanover College
By Stanley M. Totten, Ph.D.
The book, "100 Points of Light: A History of Science at Hanover College" profiles the top 100 scientists who graduated from Hanover, plus the faculty who taught them. It contains many photographs and illustrations, culled from Hanover's archives and other sources. In addition to the faculty and alumni Hanoverians will recognize, there are also interesting pieces of information about Hanover's history.
Proceeds benefit the Ross Hubbard Geology Gift Fund which supports the Science Center Museum. The books make great gifts and pricing includes tax and shipping.
Index of Profilees | Index of Photographs
The Test of Time
Madison Courier - Madison,IN,USA
Candles in all 100 windows of Hanover College's recently completed "College Edifice" provided "a light show seen from all over town" to celebrate...
Review by Richard L. Conklin, professor emeritus of physics
Whenever I plan to use One Hundred Points of Light as a quick reference, spending a few minutes to look up a biography or a date, I find myself an hour or so later emerging from some new discovery. Most recently I was intrigued with Stanley Totten's short history of Hanover College. It is a history of science at Hanover, but the science is woven into the context of the early experiment of a self-sustaining community, the devastating 1837 tornado, the almost funny Madison University episode, the succession of presidents—some heroic, some not so. Dr. Totten spent many hours, but he has used what he found to show the growth of science at Hanover from days when psychology was "mental philosophy" to the present when biology, psychology, physics and astronomy, chemistry, geology, and the new exercise science live happily together in the brilliant Science Center. He emphasizes that science has always been a vital part of a Hanover education. Some things are uniquely Hanover, like Spring term; it's good to be reminded of the imaginative ways the science departments have used it, from Oak Ridge to Ghost Ranch to Belize and other well-chosen places.
None of this could have happened without dedicated faculty members, and this is where the book is at its most fascinating. Not everyone who has taught science here is remembered, but among the people familiar to us who have been around here a while are some people from the past I wish I had known. One of them is S. Harrison Thompson, professor of natural science (physics) and mathematics and several other things from 1844 to 1876. Then there is Frank Bradley. He was here just one year (1868-1869) because some trustees didn't think he should teach evolution. He went on to be "one of the giants among pioneer geologists." But we don't need to go back that far. Many of us remember Ned Guthrie and Grant Wickwire and Jim Maysilles and George Zirkle. We worked with Harve Rawson and Dan Webster and Stan Totten, who are still very much with us. Every time I dip into the book I learn some surprising new fact about someone I've known very well and some of the present faculty I don't know well.
Those early teachers produced some alumni whose biographies can be other books. One of the most interesting parts of this book is the story of Harvey W. Wiley, who rose from a farm boy at Hanover to "the greatest man in the United States."
The book is named from the "hundred points of light," the science majors who brighten Hanover's name in so many ways and places. Before he gets to them, Stan Totten does a masterful job of telling the history that has made Hanover a place where future scientists have found the inspiration that has sent them on to such successful careers.
Book Review - By Ralph Gray '55
"One Hundred Points of Light: A History of Science at Hanover College" is a remarkable book that powerfully demonstrates the amazingly significant role played by Hanover's small but talented cadre of science professors and the considerable accomplishments of their students. These men and women represent the "one hundred points of light" mentioned in the book's clever title, based on the appearance at night of the original (pre-1837 tornado) "College Edifice" with candles in each of its 100 windows.
Really three books in one (and a picture album), this brilliant work by Professor Emeritus of Geology Stanley M. Totten provides, first, a wonderfully fresh and comprehensive but brief history of the College over its first one hundred eighty years. Second, it offers a fascinating collection of biographies of the science faculty, always strong and incredibly dedicated to their students. Third, and most impressive, Totten offers, as the book's title suggests, profiles of some one hundred and eleven Hanover science graduates and the demonstrable impact this group has had, literally, upon the world. As the author suggests, in many instances these people became the leading figures in their fields, which are as varied as kidney transplantation (one graduate doing more than 1,000 such operations), petroleum geology, hydrology, nuclear physics, aeronautics and environmental studies.
Among the professoriate in the nineteenth century were such gifted and dedicated teachers as John W. Scott and Samuel H. Thomson, whose influences helped model the scientific outlook and contributions of, among others, Andrew Harvey Young, the Coulter brothers, John and Stanley, and Harvey W. Wiley. Wiley's incredible career, including tireless promotion of unadulterated foods and drugs, required a complete chapter just to summarize it; he justly deserves Totten's assessment as "Hanover College's greatest alumnus."
The twentieth century group of truly significant science professors and mentors, quite well published, too, despite their focus on teaching and preparing their students for life in the real world, includes J. Dan Webster in zoology, Ned Guthrie in chemistry, Harve Rawson in psychology, Earl Martin and Richard Conklin in physics, and Totten and Peter Worcester in geology. Higher education and several major American corporations, to say nothing of countless U.S. government agencies, would miss many of its stars without the men and women whose scientific training began on a river bluff in southern Indiana high above the Ohio River.
The book features witty, succinct, and informative essays about the truly extraordinary achievements of Hanoverians as they entered, and even sometimes transformed, their respective professions. "One Hundred Points of Light" is a book all Hanoverians, science majors or not, should read. Everyone will know at least a few of the people profiled here, and will also go away with a new and deep admiration for the accomplishments of their fellow alumni.
Ralph D. Gray '55, Professor Emeritus of History, IUPUI
