R. Norris Shreve

Randolph Norris Shreve (March 9, 1885 – February 17, 1975) was an American chemical engineer. After joining the Purdue University faculty in 1930, he helped to build the university's School of Chemical Engineering, the Purdue-Taiwan Engineering Project, and National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. He and his wife Eleanor are the namesakes of the Shreve Professorship of Organic Technology He is the namesake of the Norris Shreve Award for Outstanding Teaching in Chemical Engineering.

Early life Shreve was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 9, 1885. After graduating from Ferguson High School in Ferguson, Missouri, he was unable to afford college, and instead began work as a laboratory boy at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis, where he learned chemistry from Charles Luedeking and William Lamar. In 2008 it was recognized by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and its Centennial Celebration Committee, which included Shreve and Chemical Process Industries on its list of "30 Authors and their Groundbreaking Chemical Engineering Books."

Mr. and Mrs. Shreve also collected Asian jade and gems. He eventually donated their jade collection to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, where it is one of the museum's best-known collections. Their gem collection was donated to Purdue.

Shreve died on February 17, 1975, and was interred in Bellafontaine Cemetery, in St. Louis.

Books and brochures Shreve, R. Norris; Wateson, Warren N.; and Willis, A.R. Dyes Classified By Intermediates. 1922. Shreve, R. Norris. Greensand Bibliography to 1930 (with a chapter on Zeolite Water Softeners). 1930. Shreve, R. Norris; Ullmann, Fritz; and Fotos, John Theodore. Intermediate Readings in Chemical and Technical German. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1938. Shreve, R. Norris; and Fotos, John Theodore. Advanced Readings in Chemical and Technical German. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1940. Shreve, R. Norris; and Olive, Theodore. Chemical Engineering Flow Sheets. 1944. Shreve, R. Norris. Chemical Process Industries. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1945. Shreve, R. Norris. Selected Process Industries. 1950. Shreve, R. Norris; Ewell, Raymond; and Alder, Thomas. Industrial Research and Development in the Philippines. 1956. Shreve, R. Norris. Shreve Collection of Gems and Gold (Brochure). The Lapidary Journal, Inc., San Diego, CA., 1971.