Curtis, Cassius Wild, 1906-

Dr. Cassius W. Curtis was born in Noblesville, Indiana in 1906. He graduated from Williams College in 1928 where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. For the next two years Curtis taught at Hamilton College until he left to study at Princeton University where he received his Ph.D. in 1936 for his research in the field of atomic spectroscopy. In this same year Curtis became an assistant professor at Western Reserve University where he remained until his teaching career was interrupted in 1942. He was asked to return to Princeton to join the National Defense Reserves Committee to contribute to war research for fundamental studies for the U.S. Army on the dynamic behavior of metals in order to improve the ability of armor plate to stop the new high-speed shells that penetrated existing armor. In 1946 he left Princeton to become a professor at Lehigh University. Curtis directed sixteen Ph.D. dissertations and many master's theses during his tenure there. In 1960-61 he served on the sub-committee for Lehigh's Committee on Educational Policy. Curtis received the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished teaching in 1963 and continued to contribute to Lehigh academic program until he retired in 1971. At the time of his retirement, Curtis was a member of the American Association of Physics Teachers; Delta Upsilon fraternity; Phi Beta Kappa, national scholastic honorary; and Sigma Xi, national research honorary; and honorary member of Tau Beta Pi. Curtis resided in Bethlehem, PA with his wife Ruth until his death in 2004.