Henry Marion Howe died at his home, Bedford Hills, N.J., on May 13th, 1922, at the age of 74.
He was born in Boston, Mass, his father being Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who was largely associated with the struggle of the Greeks to secure their national freedom, and his mother was Julia Ward Howe, the authoress of the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ He graduated from Harvard as B.A. in 1869 and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1871, afterwards receiving the degree of LL.D. from Harvard and Lafayette College, and Sc.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
After his graduation he was for some years engaged in practical work in the steel industry of Troy, N.Y., leaving there to become manager of the Bessemer steel works at Joliet, Ill. In 1897 he was appointed Professor of Metallurgy at Columbia College, New York, and on his retirement some time later to become a. consulting metallurgist he was retained on the College roll as Professor Emeritus. He was the author of several standard works, including ‘Copper Smelting‘ (1885), ‘The Metallurgy’of Steel’ (1891), ‘Metallurgical Laboratory Notes’ (1902), ‘Iron, Steel, and other Alloys’ (1908), and ‘Metallography of Steel and Cast Iron’ (1916), besides contributing to the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica the article dealing with iron and steel.
In the course of his long and distinguished career Professor Howe occupied the following among other positions: Vice-President of the Taylor-Wharton Iron and Steel Co., President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, Chairman of the Engineering Division of the National Research Council, Consulting Metallurgist of the United States Bureau of Standards, and Research Associate of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1895 he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal of the Iron and Steel Institute, of which he was made honorary Vice-President, and the Elliot Cresson Gold Medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, a special prize and gold medal from the Société d’Ecouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale, and finally in 1917, the John Fritz Gold Medal. He was the recipient of many foreign Orders, which included the Legion of Honour and the Russian Order of St. Stanislaus. He was President of the jury of awards on mining and metallurgy both at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and at the Paris Exhibition.
Professor Howe was elected an Honorary Member of the Institution in 1902.
Vol. 32, Trans IMM 1922-3, pp.288-9
