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Preliminary Inventory of the Paul M. Gross papers, 1939-1979

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Administrative Information

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Accession number: A93-43. 10-27

Speeches, 1945-1979

Topics include the importance of graduate schools, specialization in science, and the environment. Includes addresses, dedications, eulogies, lectures, panel discussions, and retirement and testimonial dinner addresses.

Box 1

Gross-Edens Controversy, clippings, 1960

Box 1

Speeches, 1945-1979

Topics include the importance of graduate schools, specialization in science, and the environment.

Addresses, dedications, eulogies, lectures, panel discussions, and retirement and testimonial dinner addresses.

Box 2

Military research files, 1941-1973

Includes science-related advisory committees for military agencies.

Army Scientific Advisory Panel (ASAP), 1963-1973

Includes meeting files of note include a 1965 meeting with visitor packet for the new US Army John F. Kennedy Center for Special Warfare (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C. Also included are two folders of correspondence, lists and biographical sketches of panel members, organizational charts, ASAP newsletters (1965-1968) published by the Research and Development branch of the Army, and chemical war service files.

Box 3

Frangible Bullet Project, 1941-1951

The Frangible Bullet Project was the largest military research project at Duke centered on gunnery training ammunition for aircraft bombers. Also includes "History of the Frangible Bullet Project" which is Gross' account of his involvement in the project.

Correspondence, financial information, and reports

Box 3

Frangible Bullet Project, 1941-1951

Box 4

Frangible Bullet Project, 1941-1951

Box 5

Munitions Advisory Group, 1963-1970

Contains agendas and minutes, correspondence, memoranda, and lists of participants. Includes inaugural meetings of the Munitions Advisory Group and U.S. Army Munitions Command.

Box 6

Accession number: 65-122.

Naval Research materials, 1942-1951 (bulk 1946-1951)

Contains annual reports, progress reports, correspondence, and budgetary information documenting research on organic fluorine compounds and batteries carried out by the Duke Chemistry Department under contract with the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

Office of Ordnance Research, 1951-1963

Contains meeting files, research reports, and correspondence pertaining to the U.S. Army's Office of Ordnance Research (OOR), established at Duke University in 1951. Includes a 1959 building dedication and a 1951 proposal for establishing an Ordnance Institute of Chemical Physics at Duke.

Box 6

Senior Scientific Steering Group (OOR), 1958-1970

Contains correspondence, meeting files and reports (1969-1970) pertaining to SSSG, the advisory group to the OOR. Materials pertain to munitions malfunction during testing.

Box 6

Topic files: Chemical Warfare Service, National Materials Advisory Board, National Academy of Sciences, supply inventories

Box 6

Correspondence, 1933-1970

Contains personal correspondence, memoranda, postcards, calendars, invitations, and financial material (1947- 1963) Includes correspondence related to travel, his beach house on the coast of North Carolina, and boating. Also included are letters of congratulations and invitations to speak or attend events. Correspondents include his family members and University administrators Deryl Hart and Arthur Hollis Edens. Also contains consulting correspondence (1933-1943) regarding evaluation of the chemical composition of products like beer, cosmetics, film, and fire extinguishers

Box 6

Professional organizations, 1935-1979

Includes correspondence with some professional organizations, mostly American Chemical Society and UNESCO-related

Box 7

Professional organizations, 1935-1979

Includes meeting notes, lectures, speeches, correspondence, reports, member lists, and general material regarding Gross and the American Chemical Society and UNESCO.

Box 8

Professional organizations, 1935-1979

Includes meeting notes, lectures, speeches, correspondence, clippings, and reports of the National Science Foundation and the National Science, Board Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Science Committee

Box 9

Accssion number: A93-43

Professional organizations and endowments of Duke University, 1950-1979

American Association of University Professors (1953-1956), reports, meeting notifications, clippings, correspondence

Box 10

Association of Graduate Schools, reports, notes, correspondence, pamphlets, 1950-1958

Box 10

Criticism regarding Gross' retirement

Box 10

Carnegie Corporation, correspondence, reports, applications, 1950-1953

Box 10

Rockefeller Foundation materials

Box 10

Conference on Dean of Graduate Schools, Council of Southern Universities, 1969-1979

Box 10

Council of Southern Universities, general meeting notes, reports, and correspondence, 1969-1979

Box 11

Professional Organizations

Southern Fellowship Fund, Executive Committee and Board of Director meeting notes.

Box 12

Council of Southern Universities, general meeting notes

Box 12

Ford Foundation Institute of International Education

Includes grant proposals, reports on higher education funding, behavioral studies, and occupational retirement.

Box 12

Graduate School, correspondence, 1947-1950

Box 13

Graduate Council notes

Box 13

Menhaden oil (in fisheries), studies, correspondence

Box 13

Marine Laboratory studies and projects, proposals to National Science Foundation

Box 13

Cooperative Research Vessel Program in Biological Oceanography

Box 13

National Institute of Health meeting at Duke University, 1958

Box 13

President M. Toure of Guinea, 1959

Box 13

President's Reports, report of the VP in charge of the Educational Division, 1949-1959

Includes Arthur Hollis Edens correspondence

Box 13

Professional organizations

President's Science Advisory Committee, 1963-1965

Box 14

Southern Association of College and Secondary Schools, 1949

Box 14

Southern Association of Science and Industry, Inc., 1949

Box 14

Southern University Conference, 1955

Box 14

U.S. Atomic Energy contract, teaching and study Atomic Energy in the South, 1956, meeting notes

Box 14

Fallout preparedness at Duke University, seminar notes, schematics for buildings, 1963

Box 14

Woodrow Wilson fellowships, 1965-1966

Box 14

Office of Ordnance Research at Duke University, publications, research notes

Box 15

Laboratory Conference for Science and Math Teachers, held at Duke University, 1954

Box 15

AAUP report "The Rights and Responsibilities of Universities and Their Faculties"

Box 15

Correspondence, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the U.S. Army (regarding environmental health)

Box 15

Civil Defense

Box 15

Lectures, Sigma Xi (1951) and memorial for Dr. F. London (1963)

Box 15

Council on Aging

Box 15

University Research Council Grant, 1961-1965

Box 15

Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C

Box 15

Accelerated Program at Duke University, 1942-1943

Box 15

Duke Council for American Defense University Defense Committee, 1941

Box 16

Research Associate material, 1960-1961

Box 16

Science Teachers Workshop, 1952

Box 16

Duke University N.A.S.A. Space Committee, 1963-1964

Box 16

Proposal for a space studies program at Duke University Duke Endowment, 1962-1968, meeting notes

Box 16

"The Status and Needs of the Private University for Meeting the Task Ahead, with Special Reference to Graduate Education", author unknown, ca. 1960

Box 16

Aging Center plans, 1958

Box 16

Biology building, Zoology, Forestry, and Botany Departments, ca. 1956

Box 16

Emeritus payments, correpsondence, general correspondence

Box 17

Administrative Committee, minutes and meeting notes

Box 17

Duke Endowment

Box 17

50th Anniversary materials

Box 17

Speech by Gross dedicating the Fritz London auditorium

Box 17

General study materials

Box 17

Committee on Educational Institutions

Box 17

Paul Clyde correspondence, mostly concerning faculty compensation, general university matters, 1962-1967

Box 17

Memo to President Arthur Hollis Edens regarding faculty salaries, 1953

Box 17

Duke University Development

General correspondence and reports

Box 17

Ratings of universities in the U.S.

Box 17

Chemistry Department

Graduate papers, 1927-1940

Box 18

Correspondence, 1933-1934

Box 18

General materials, 1949-1960

Box 18

Phi Lambda Upsilon (chemistry honor fraternity)

Box 18

Sigma Xi materials

Box 18

Chemistry Department, general files, 1960-1964

Includes correspondence, notes, reports, and minutes from various Duke University committees, professional organizations, and other university chemistry departments.

Box 19

Chemistry Department, general files, 1964-1967

Includes correspondence, notes, reports, and minutes from various Duke University committees, professional organizations, and other university chemistry departments.

Box 20

Woodrow Wilson fellowship meetings, 1968-1969

Box 20

Awards letters of recognition, and some meeting notes

Woodrow Wilson fellowship meetings, 1970-1973

Box 21

U.S. Army award, 1963

Box 21

Herty Award correspondence, 1945

Box 21

Southern Association of Science and Industry, 1951

Box 21

Lecture/talk to the American Chemical Society, Florida section, 1952

Box 21

Committees

American Council on Education, 1963

Box 21

University Council, 1960-1961

Box 21

Executive Committee of Academic Council

Box 21

Chemistry Library

Box 21

Paul Gross Symposium, 1965

Box 21

Retirement dinner of Paul Gross

Box 21

Dr. Henry Heald's speech, 1965

Box 21

Letters of congratulations, 1949-1950

Box 21

Graduate records, 1941-1946 Joe Taylor Adams, correspondence and subject files

Box 22

Selective service, correspondence and subject files, 1940-1949

Box 22

Joseph Allen, correspondence and subject files

Box 22

CRESAP report on organization and administration of Duke University

Box 22

Gross speech

Box 22

Founder's Day 50th Anniversary, 1975

Box 22

Southern Association of College and Secondary Schools, 1947-1950

Box 22

Association of American Universities, 1948-1949

Box 22

Graduate School, correspondence and subject files, 1951-1952

Box 22

Committees

Undergraduate Affairs Committee

Box 23

Faculty Advisory Committee

Box 23

University Planning Committee

Box 23

University Council

Box 23

New science building

Box 23

Correspondence, 1969

Box 23

Duke Endowment, 1968-1969

Box 23

Senator Lister Hill's Testimonial, 1961

Box 23

Various reports on environmental health, radiological health, and toxicology, ca. 1961

Box 23

Committees

Environmental Health Committee

Box 24

President's Science Advisory Committee

Box 24

Various reports for Gross Committee, ca. 1961

Box 24

Development Program at Duke University

Box 24

Claude Cary Gravatt, Jr., Ph.D. student, writings and correspondence committee materials

Box 24

Departmental reports, ca. 1959

Box 24

Medical Center Building Committee reports, ca. 1959-1960

Box 25

Correspondence

President R.L. Flowers

Box 25

Dean Wannamaker

Box 25

Social Science Research Council

Box 25

Gross-Edens reports and correspondence

Box 25

Apparatus research Atomic Industrial Forum Conference Award, 1969

Box 25

Subject files on furniture manufacturing and textiles

Box 25

Testimonial dinner for Paul M. Gross, 1959

Box 25

Paul M. Gross Chemical Laboratory dedication, 1969

Box 25

U.S. Atomic Energy Award, single

Box 25

University Council on Aging and Development

Box 25

President Arthur Hollis Edens correspondence, reports, subject files, ca. 1959

Box 25

General University organization

Box 25

Faculty Senate, ca. 1951

Box 25

Navy contract, superconductivity, 1947-1948

Box 25

Duke University committees

Committee on Development

Box 26

Educational Committee

Box 26

Committee on Faculty Reorganization

Box 26

Long-Range Planning and Development

Box 26

Departments and Schools reports

Box 26

Travel abroad, 1958-1969

Box 26

Northwestern University National Academy of Sciences

Box 26

Chemstrand Research Laboratories Dedication, 1961

Box 26

American Association for the Advancement of Science, congratulations on being selected to serve as President-Elect

Box 26

Duke Symposium (Gross was a panel speaker)

Box 26

Dinner in honor of Dr. Lucius Bigelow, 1961 (speech in box 2)

Box 26

Conference given in honor of Dr. W.C. Davison, 1961 (speech in box 2)

Box 26

Bylaws of Duke University, revisions, ca. 1961

Box 27

Salary increase discussion, 1961-1962

Box 27

Correspondence

President Douglas M. Knight

Box 27

Thomas L. Perkins, ca. 1961-1971

Box 27

Commercial vendors

Box 27

UNESCO-related

Box 27

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Box 27

Accession number: 65-28

Duke University, departments and committees

Academic Standards Committee - Committee Appointments

Box 28

Paul Hibbert Clyde

Box 28

Columbia University

Box 28

Duke Mathematics Journal

Box 28

Duke University, departments and committees

Computation Center - Engineering, 1954-1955

Includes Divinity School and Department of Education

Box 29

Engineering, 1956-1975 - Faculty

Includes Department of English and enrollment statistics

Box 30

Faculty member lists - Graduate School

Includes German Department and School of Forestry

Box 31

Graduate School, foreign language requirement - Libraries, Flowers Collection

Includes History Department and Law School

Box 32

Mathematics Department - Medical Center

Box 33

Medical Center, staff, correspondence, subject files

Box 34

Medical Center - Parapsychology Laboratory

Includes Nursing School

Box 35

Parking and Traffic - Psychology Department

Includes Physical Education (from Women), Physics, and Political Science

Box 36

Psychology Department - Romance Languages Department

Includes Registrar, Religion Department, and Research Council

Box 37

Romance Languages Department - Sociology and Anthropology Department

Includes space allocation, and summer session

Box 38

Sociology and Anthropology Department - Zoology Department

Includes University Council and Woman's College

Box 39

Duke University Press

Box 39

DuPont Grants for Advancing Undergraduate Teaching

Box 39

President Arthur Hollis Edens correspondence, 1949-1958

Box 39

Fidelity Bank branch establishment

Box 40

Correspondence

Ford Foundation

Box 40

Herbert Herring

Box 40

John J. Gergen

Box 40

Edwin Hobbs

Box 40

Charles E. Jordan

Box 40

Alan K. Manchester, 1949-1959

Box 40

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1949-1958

Box 40

Highland Biological Station

Box 40

Miscellaneous correspondence, 1954-1957

Box 41

Southern Regional Education Board files, 1949-1954

Box 41

Southern Regional Education Board files, 1954-1959

Box 42

National Defense Education Act, 1958-1959

Box 42

Fulbright scholarships, 1950-1959

Box 42

Yale University teaching

Box 42

This box is unprocessed.

Box 43

Historical Note

Paul M. Gross was born in 1895. He received degrees from the City College of New York (B.S., 1916) and Columbia University (M.S., 1917 and Ph.D. 1919) in physical chemistry. He arrived at Trinity College in 1919, and began his tenure as Assistant Professor of Chemistry, teaching physical, organic, and fluorine chemistry. He led the Chemistry Department as Duke University underwent the transformation from regional college to research university. Gross served Duke University as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry (1919-1920), William H. Pegram Professor of Chemistry (1920-1965), Chair of the Chemistry Department (1921-1948), Dean of the Graduate School (1947-1952), Dean of the University (1952-1958), and Vice-President in the Educational Division (1949-1960). Gross was a proponent of scientific research and its value for education and society and held many seminars for science educators in North Carolina.

Gross directed Duke University's scientific research for both the U.S. Army and Navy during wartime. Naval Research on organic fluorine gases, compounds, and batteries was carried out by the Chemistry Department under contract with the Office of Naval Research. As part of the Army Scientific Advisory Panel, Gross advised top U.S. Army researchers on scientific matters. Gross was also involved in the Frangible Bullet Project, the largest military research project at Duke University. The frangible bullet, developed in 1942, was a plastic explosive that behaved like a bullet and enabled accurate training practices. The project earned Gross the President's Medal of Merit.

While a successful scientist, Gross is perhaps best known at Duke University as an administrator. Gross' administrative career at Duke University began in 1934 when he was named Chair of the University Research Council, a position he held until 1949. The Research Council helped to guide the University as it developed into a respected research institution. He also chaired the University Committee on Long Range Planning from 1959-1960. His opinions on administrative matters, along with his Vice President of Educational Division status, led to conflicts with President A. Hollis Edens around 1960, in what came to be known as the Gross-Edens Affair. The conflict mostly concerns the debate over whether Duke University should become a regional or national university, and to what degree the institution should be known for its devotion to research or teaching. Edens resigned from his position as University President, and Gross was removed from his administrative position as a result of the conflict.

In addition to his university positions, Paul Gross also served on numerous state, regional, and national boards relating to scientific research. In the late 1940s, he was a founder of the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies (later Oak Ridge Associated Universities) and served as its President until 1949. President Harry S. Truman appointed Gross to the original National Science Foundation board in 1950, a position he held for 12 years. Gross held other administrative positions within the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the United States Health, Education, and Welfare Committee on Environmental Health, the Council of Southern Universities, the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology, Research Triangle Institute, Governor's Research Triangle Committee, and the North Carolina Atomic Energy Advisory Committee.

As an independent contractor, Gross was called upon to evaluate the composition of products including beer, cosmetics, film, and fire extinguishers. He was a sought-after speaker among his colleagues, giving many dedications, eulogies, lectures, panel discussions, testimonials, and dinner addresses during his career. When Gross retired from teaching at Duke University in 1965, the Gross Chemical Laboratory on Duke University's West Campus was named in his honor. Paul M. Gross died in 1986 at the age of 91.

Paul M. Gross was the son of Magnus and Ellen Sullivan Gross of New York. He married Gladys Cobb Peterson in 1918. They had two children: Paul M. Gross, Jr. and Beatrix Gross Ramey.

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