Purdue News

August 1999 Love of education, East Asia propelled Norris Shreve to help build a university Story first printed in the 1999 Summer edition of Perspective newspaper for alumni and friends. Teaching at Purdue was a change in careers for R. Norris Shreve. The professor of chemical engineering had been a successful chemist, headed his own chemical company and worked as a consultant for years before being persuaded to join the Purdue faculty in 1930 at the age of 45. In 1952, his Purdue career changed. After serving four years as head of the School of Chemical Engineering, Shreve took on a project that might have seemed overwhelming to some who were close to retirement. Known for his energy and drive, Shreve jumped when given the chance to combine his engineering expertise with his passion for East Asia to help rebuild a university in Taiwan. In the process, he helped build a long relationship between the people of that country and Purdue. Download Photo Here Photo Caption Below What is now Cheng Kung University was in 1952 the neglected Tainan Provincial College of Engineering with 890 students. Within nine years, Shreve and several Purdue colleagues helped the college grow to a distinguished institution of 3,500 students. Shreve's story, along with those of many Purdue alumni and friends in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea, is told in a new book, "Three Tigers and Purdue." The book will be a gift to the people of those countries from Purdue President Steven Beering. Shreve and his wife, Eleanor, were frequent travelers in East Asia. They enjoyed the people, and they collected jade and other treasures from East Asia. Shortly after returning from a trip to Japan in 1952, Shreve was contacted by Purdue President Frederick Hovde and asked to return to East Asia to undertake an engineering advisory job. Purdue had been chosen, through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1950, to help provide assistance to less-developed countries. Taiwan had changed from Japanese to Chinese control after World War II and was, beginning in 1949, the home to ousted Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his followers who fled communist China. The island was small and needed roads, cities, more schools and industry in order to survive. It needed up-to-date colleges to train its citizens to build and run the country. The college president at Tainan, when asked to choose an American university to work with his institution, picked Purdue because of its engineering reputation and because of its graduates who had returned to China to make significant contributions. Shreve visited the college for three months beginning in December 1952. He enthusiastically recommended to Hovde that Purdue become involved with the project. What was conceived as a two-and-one-half year project became a nine-year association between Purdue and Cheng Kung. Shreve became the project's director and enlisted the help of 16 fellow professors over the years to serve as advisers and consultants. The goal, Shreve wrote, was not to make Cheng Kung University a facsimile of Purdue, but to adapt the successful methods at Purdue to the needs and aspirations of Taiwan. Old buildings were remodeled, laboratories updated, new buildings and labs built, and the curriculum developed and adapted to the standards necessary. In addition, by the end of the program, more than 30 professors from Taiwan had spent time at Purdue, observing and studying so they could return and play a part in the rebuilding process. Shreve retired from teaching at Purdue in 1955, but stayed with the Tainan project until 1961. A hall on the Cheng Kung University campus was named for him in 1961. The success of the project team helped build Purdue's reputation in Taiwan. Thirty-one students from Taiwan graduated from Purdue during the 1950s and 177 during the 1960s. Shreve had helped make a difference in the lives of the people of Taiwan and in the workings of the country. Back in West Lafayette, he also had made great contributions - and would for years to come. In 1957, the Shreves established the Norris and Eleanor Shreve Fund, providing an annual prize for a teacher in chemical engineering and for an endowed distinguished professorship. Shreve died in February 1975. A successful career as a businessman gave Shreve the means to travel and assemble his fine jade collection, some of which is now housed at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. His second career at Purdue gave him the satisfaction of helping develop young students and accomplished teachers. Taking the position at Purdue, he once said, was the best decision he made. Those at Purdue and in Taiwan surely echo that sentiment. PHOTO CAPTION: Purdue President Frederick Hovde (seated at right) was a firm believer in international programs on campus and an international education abroad. He was a great supporter of the Purdue project to help build a successful engineering school in Tainan, Taiwan. The new Cheng Kung University president Yen Chern-Hsin (seated at left) made a visit to the West Lafayette Campus in the late 1950s, when he met with George Hawkins (left), dean of the Schools of Engineering, and R. Norris Shreve, the Purdue professor of chemical engineering who headed the Tainan project. Download Photo Here Stories by Julie Rosa Link to a related story: A gift for our friends To the Purdue News and Photos Page