Morgan County Profiles

Clifford C. Furnas

      Clifford C. Furnas, a Mooresville High School graduate and class valedictorian, became accomplished as a scientist, college administrator, author, and government official.
     Graduating at Mooresville, he went on to earn an engineering degree at Purdue in 1922. He had won an Olympic medal in track in 1920 and was the Big Ten Conference Outstanding Academic Student-Athlete in 1922. He became an Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering at Yale, Chancellor of the University of Buffalo, and President of New York State University at Buffalo. Earlier, he had earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
     He became a key scientific and technical advisor in government circles, serving on a broad range of top committees. He was on the U.S. Missile Advisory Group, the Advisory Committee on Atomic Energy, Chairman of the National Defense Science Board, Chairman of the Panel of Facilities on Guided Missiles, and on both Army and Navy research and advisory boards.
     Ultimately he was named Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Development in the Eisenhower Administration and played a key role in getting the U.S. ready for the new Space Age to come.
     Author of several books, contributor to many journals, Furnas left a journalistic mark with his scientific-military foresight and certainly one of the most accomplished of native students to achieve national recognition.

By Ken Griffin

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