A Centennial of Auburn Engineering:
From Red Clay to Red Satellite
Continued...

After the economic boom caused by the war, recession hit Alabama, which led to years of scarcity for Auburn. Using money from foundations, alumni and friends, the new president expanded campus programs and built several new buildings. The “engineering division,” as he called it, represented about half of the students and received its fair share of money for new construction. With a generous donation from Birmingham industrialist and mining engineer Erskine Ramsay, the institute built a large new engineering hall named for its benefactor. But API never had enough money for salaries, equipment and supplies, and after Dowell had a dustup over football, powerful alumni precipitated a crisis and hounded him out of office.

On July 1, 1928, Dr. Bradford Knapp, an agricultural specialist and renowned educator, became president. The new president, as it turned out, had a brief honeymoon followed by a stormy, six-year tenure. Knapp, expecting to receive $750,000 in construction funds appropriated by the 1927 legislature, proposed using the money to build a new chemistry laboratory, a textile engineering building and other new buildings in a multimillion-dollar spending spree at the start of the Great Depression. He suggested that work begin on the chemistry building “almost immediately” and pushed to establish a textile engineering program “as soon as possible.” John J. Wilmore, named dean in 1908, remained dean of engineering as Knapp reorganized API and turned its colleges into schools, including the School of Engineering. Storm clouds formed on the economic horizon but the new college president, along with just about everyone else, failed to see them until the stock market began to decline on Oct. 21, 1929. A few days later, panic set in.

flat head Ford demo in class

The economic situation worsened and by April 1930 Knapp admitted, “Auburn didn’t have funds to meet the May 1 payroll.” However, he had already let contracts for the textile engineering and new shop buildings. They completed construction of the former in 1930, outfitted it in 1931, and with the help of the local industry, obtained needed equipment. They also opened the new shop building containing woodworking and sheet metal workshops.

Wilmore established an aeronautical option in mechanical engineering and announced plans to establish a curriculum in industrial engineering, which offered “suitable courses in business and economics . . . added to a sound basic engineering training [to] qualify men for positions in the management side of industry.”

Registration by hand

In early 1932, API was about five months late in paying salaries, but despite the worsening depression, enrollment increased. The lack of funds for 1933 caused more concern as the legislature considered balancing the state budget by further cutting educational expenses. Knapp explained that if this occurred, he would have to cut salaries across the board. Then on July 28, 1932, he issued his valedictory report, which said, “to dismantle the work here at Auburn at the present time would be a crime.”

Long lines

The president said the institute owed $563,000 in debt for the “instructional division,” with 61 percent of this in unpaid salaries. When he was done with his report, he resigned. The trustees appointed an administrative committee of three men to discharge the duties of the office of president, including Luther N. Duncan, director of the Agricultural Extension Service; Bolling Hall Crenshaw, head professor of mathematics – and engineering’s John J. Wilmore. The mild mannered 69-year-old dean of engineering, who did not like to speak in public, began by recapping the dismal financial situation. One of the most urgent needs of the institute was money for maintenance because Knapp had neglected old buildings while he built new ones. Roofs leaked, walls needed painting and the campus needed general maintenance.

The Road to Morocco begins at Tiger Theater

During the 1934 academic year, API awarded the largest number of degrees it had ever granted, but enrollment during the fall semester of 1934 dropped to the lowest level since the start of the depression. Engineering enrollment remained at about 41 percent of the total student body, after peaking at 52 percent in 1926. However, the engineering freshman class in 1934 was large, which augured well for future growth. Auburn limped along paying less than half of faculty salaries and the typical faculty member lived on $67.50 per month, or about $1,100 in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars. Resignations increased and despite a shortage of teachers, they hired few replacements. Wilmore appointed Charles Hixon as temporary assistant dean of engineering since his duties as chair took up most of his time.

When Bibb Graves returned as governor in 1935, he appointed a presidential selection committee that picked Luther N. Duncan as president. Wilmore, 71 and obviously relieved to return to the School of Engineering, expressed his “genuine pleasure” with the new president, who named him to chair the institute’s executive council. By the spring of 1937, the college had recovered sufficiently to pay faculty and staff 90 percent of their salaries; in 1938, they were paid in full. Duncan called for renewed state support for the engineering school and its experiment station, as well as for the adoption of a cooperative engineering education plan. He also asked for an expansion of the graduate program by increasing the number of fellowships and the adoption of uniform regulations governing graduate education.

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