History of the Old Chemistry Building (NDSU archives)
History of Ladd Hall (NDSU archives)
History of Dunbar Hall (NDSU archives)
Department Faculty Geneology (PDF)

--Taken from "Seventy Five Years of Chemistry and Related Science at North Dakota State University," by Franz Rathmann

Chemistry was one of the first subjects taught at North Dakota State University

In March 1890, the first North Dakota Legislature established the North Dakota Agricultural College and Agricultural Experiment Station at Fargo. Later that year, Edwin Fremont Ladd, a chemist from the New York Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, New York, was appointed professor of chemistry. He also taught English, geology, and astronomy.

College Hall, the first building on campus (now called Old Main) was completed in 1892. Here, in the basement, Professor Ladd taught chemistry, nutrition, and dairy products. Edwin F. Ladd was the guiding spirit of the department from 1890 until his advancement to the presidency in 1916. Chemistry during this period included pharmacy, nutrition, agricultural biochemistry, and the State Testing Laboratory.

Especially noteworthy was Ladd's work in the field of the pure food laws. Together with proper enforcement from the State Testing Laboratory, which he headed, Ladd spoke for, demanded, and cajoled the North Dakota legislature to adopt pure food laws. Through his influence, the Federal Pure Food and Drug Act was finally adopted in 1906.

Ladd's work on testing paints was of special interest to North Dakota farmers, who were both consumers of paints as well as growers of the flax seed for the linseed oil it contains. Ladd's advice on the specifications for paints was also of great value, and finally appreciated as well by both the consumer and the industry. The tradition of NDAC as a "paint school" has carried to the present Department of Polymers and Protective Coatings, which attracts students from all over the world, as well as the United States.

The basement quarters in College Hall soon became too small for chemistry. A new building was erected, but by 1908, these facilities also became inadequate, and a brick building was erected. Scarcely a year later, on Christmas Eve, 1909, a fire of unknown, some said of "mysterious," origin completely destroyed the building, along with much valuable research material, samples, the chemistry library, and all of the early records on research and testing, which were stored there.

A new, fire-proof building was erected in 1910 and dedicated as "Chemistry." In accordance with Ladd's and the school's varied activities, this building, like the building of 1909, had a greenhouse attached, and a high, square tower that served as the College Weather Station for many years. This building was rededicated in 1952 as Ladd Hall, where the chemistry department is still located today.

As president of the school, Ladd continued the policies of the former administration and preserved a full four-year college program, combining a practical with a broad liberal education. Ladd also remained as Dean of Chemistry and Pharmacy. In 1920, he was elected United States Senator from North Dakota. In the United States Senate he allied himself with men such as LaFollette, Norris, and Frazier. He died in office on June 22, 1925.

In 1921, William Tudor Pearce became Head of the School of Chemistry. Shortly following, the State Testing Laboratories, its equipment records, and staff, moved to Bismarck. Pearce was made Dean of the School of Chemistry in 1926, but went on leave soon afterward and never returned. He became associated with the paint and varnish industry and the Federation of Paint and Varnish Industries until he retired.

During the years of the Great Depression that began in 1929, economizing was necessary in educational institutions throughout the nation, especially in states such as North Dakota that had to face the additional problems of drought, dust storms, and crop failure. The College budget was cut by 59 percent in 1933. Chemistry was reduced to a department under the Division of Engineering, and the highest salary paid a professor was $1,920 for a nine-month academic year. Even the President of the College received only $3,000 for twelve months.

While salaries elsewhere often were considerably higher, the staff was not depleted, and others came, including Ralph Edwin Dunbar. The department continued to have large numbers of students, including graduate students, among them 10 graduate assistants. Despite low budgets, political footballism, and administrative strife, the School of Chemistry, like the College itself, had achieved a "high spirit and morale."

What depression and drought could not do, World War II completed. Most of the chemistry staff members took leaves of absence to go into war work. Students disappeared or were there only as military service units for special training courses.

Only Ralph E. Dunbar remained of the old staff, and to him alone fell the task of rebuilding the staff and the school. With a new staff (mostly inexperienced in college teaching), laboratories disorganized by war service, supplies depleted and difficult to restock, and a huge flood of ex-G.I. students, this task was tremendous. Appointed Acting Dean in 1943, and Dean of the School of Chemical Technology in 1945, Dunbar soon assembled a dynamic and conscientious new staff of teachers who continued the traditions of the School as the Head of Paints, Varnishes, and Lacquers. Soon students from many parts of the world, including Asia, were doing graduate work for a Master of Science degree.

By the late '50s the Master of Science program was established at NDAC, not only in chemistry, but in other fields as well. In place of a Graduate Committee, which R. E. Dunbar had chaired, a Graduate School was established in 1954. By 1960, the College grew to about 3,000 regular students, including 200 graduate students.

By 1958, President Fred S. Hultz and many faculty members, encouraged by the example of other land-grant colleges, felt that the time was ripe for North Dakota Agricultural College to become a State University. Included in these plans was the institution of a program of advanced research leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree. At first, Dunbar and most of the members of the chemistry staff were opposed to this on various grounds: cost, equipment, teaching loads, adequacy of the staff. Dunbar felt it was better to offer a good master's degree program than to risk offering what might be an inadequate doctoral program, and this view was echoed and approved by most of his colleagues.

When, however, other schools in the college decided to enter upon the doctoral program, and when it became evident hat Federal Aid probably would become available to support such a program, the faculty of the School of Chemical Technology supported Dunbar in his decision to participate in this new venture. Formal authorization for offering the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the fields of animal science, plant science, entomology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and chemistry was given by the Board of Higher Education in 1959.

The Board of Higher Education refused, however, to grant the request for a change of name or to recommend that the Legislature do so. A name-change proposal failed of sufficient popular support in 1958, but on November 8, 1960, the voters of North Dakota cast their ballots overwhelmingly for the name-change amendment which provided that North Dakota Agricultural College be henceforth known as North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.

Measures immediately were taken to institute a modest doctoral program, and Sol Shulman, with a B.S. from Washington and an M.S. from Iowa State, became the first candidate to be accepted and to start research work for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry.

Ralph Dunbar, aged 65, died unexpectedly on Labor Day, 1960, and Dr. Festus Lazelle Minnear became Acting Dean. In accordance with the new University status, the School was made a College, and Dr. Minnear, who had come to NDAC in 1953 as an Associate Professor of Chemistry, became Dean of the College of Chemical Technology.

The need for an addition to Ladd Hall became evident during the last years of Dunbar's administration. With the expansion into the doctoral program, the need became urgent. Together with Dean Minnear, a building committee made studies on new chemistry buildings in other institutions and laid plans for a new chemistry building to satisfy the needs of another decade. Dakota Hall, the old men's dormitory north of Ladd Hall, was demolished, and construction of a new building to be used primarily by research students, began in the summer of 1963. The new building, known as the Dunbar Laboratories of Ladd Hall, was occupied in 1964.

In 1962-63, the administration of the University, with the mutual consent of the College of Engineering and the College of Chemical Technology, decided to transfer the Department of Physics and establish a College of Chemistry and Physics. At the same time Dean Minnear retired as Dean, James M. Sugihara was appointed Dean of the College of Chemistry and Physics. Dr. Sugihara took over his duties in July, 1964, just as the move into Dunbar Laboratories began. Dr. Minnear remained as Professor of Chemistry and Acting Head of the Department of Physics.