Benjamin Martin Shaub
1893 - 1993
Benjamin Martin Shaub was a mineralogist, educator, photographer, ornithologist, engineer, and inventor.
Born in 1893 in Pennsylvania, he went to grade school in a one-room school house. He attended a telegraphy school in Lebanon, PA, which gave him the skills for a job on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This took him to Ithaca, NY, where he completed high school and began studies at Cornell University. During World War I, he was an instructor at the Naval Radio School at Harvard. He returned to Cornell to complete a M.E. degree in 1923. He taught machine design at Cornell from 1923-1929, while earning a M.Sc. (1928) and Ph.D. (1929) in economic geology.
After a year as a mining geologist in northern Rhodesia, Shaub moved to Smith College in 1931. He taught courses in mineralogy, petrography, optical mineralogy, and gemology for 27 years until his retirement in 1958.
He was a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, the Geological Society of America, and the Meteorological Society of America, and a charter member of the Connecticut Valley Mineral Club. He was also a member of various nature and camera clubs. His publications numbered more than 100 and spanned topics in minerology, ornithology, and more.
Born in 1893 in Pennsylvania, he went to grade school in a one-room school house. He attended a telegraphy school in Lebanon, PA, which gave him the skills for a job on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This took him to Ithaca, NY, where he completed high school and began studies at Cornell University. During World War I, he was an instructor at the Naval Radio School at Harvard. He returned to Cornell to complete a M.E. degree in 1923. He taught machine design at Cornell from 1923-1929, while earning a M.Sc. (1928) and Ph.D. (1929) in economic geology.
After a year as a mining geologist in northern Rhodesia, Shaub moved to Smith College in 1931. He taught courses in mineralogy, petrography, optical mineralogy, and gemology for 27 years until his retirement in 1958.
He was a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, the Geological Society of America, and the Meteorological Society of America, and a charter member of the Connecticut Valley Mineral Club. He was also a member of various nature and camera clubs. His publications numbered more than 100 and spanned topics in minerology, ornithology, and more.
John B. Brady, "Memorial of Benjamin M. Shaub, 1893-1993," <i>American Mineralogist</i> 79 (1994): 1017-1018; available online at http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM79/AM79_1017.pdf.
For more details, see a memorial published in: American Mineralogist , Vol. 79, pp. 1017-1018 (1994). Available online http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM79/AM79_1017.pdf (accessed 07/05/2015)