Norbert A. Lange was born on August 4, 1892 to Adolph and Anna Hauser Lange in Sandusky, Ohio. He left the city to attend the University of Michigan, where he earned three degrees, a B.A. in 1915, an M.S. in 1917, and a Ph.D. in 1918. He worked as a chemistry instructor at Michigan between 1917 and 1919 and then became a professor at Case School of Applied Science, where he worked from 1919 to 1934. Lange also worked as a lecturer at Western Reserve University between 1925 and 1952. During this time, Lange moved back to Sandusky in 1933. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and a member of Sigma Xi and Alpha Chi Sigma. In 1934, he helped found Handbook Publishers, Inc. Lange married Marion Cleaveland, who was also a chemistry professor. Lange gained fame in 1931 as the author of Lange’s Handbook of Chemistry, which has been published in several editions; the 16th edition was published in 2004. In 1959, both Norbert and Marion Cleaveland translated Dr. Ernst van Schulenberg’s 1889 work “Sandusky, Einst and Jetzt: Mit Besonderer Berücksichigung der Deutschen Localen Verhältnisse” from Germany into English. The English version of “Sandusky, Then and Now: With Special Regard to Local, German Situations” discusses the political, cultural, and business life of Germans in Sandusky. The book also contains biographies of several German residents of the city as well as an early history of Erie County and Sandusky. Before his death on October 12, 1972, Lange created the Norbert A. and Marion Cleaveland Lange Trust of Sandusky Library in his Last Will and Testament. The Trust was implemented upon the death of his wife, Marion, who died on December 23, 1975. The couple instructed that the Trust, using no public money, be used for the promotion of cultural and educational projects directed at the general public.
From the guide to the Norbert A. Lange Collection, 1855-1959, (Sandusky Library)
