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Philip G. Hubbard portrait and clipping, February 1966

Pamphlet: Practicing what he preaches

Practicing what he preaches
The University has given Dr. Philip G. Hubbard a chance to practice what he preaches. At forty-four, a professor of mechanics and hyraulics, he is the new Dean for Academic Affairs, an area far removed from the technical aspects of engineering. Admitting that it is unusual for "an engineer to go this far astray," he said, "For several years I've emphasized that what we (engineers) do influence our civilization, our culture, and whether we are to be destroyed. An engineer should be concerned with the social consequences of his work, not just the end. We have to be involved at the elementary level of planning." He feels his new post will bring him in at the planning level. He said, "When the opportunity was presented, I thought, 'you've been insisting on this so here is the chance. What are you going to do?'" A man who believes in accepting challenges, Dr. Hubbard made the decision to leave an assured career in the field of engineering. "My life hasn't been based on doing the safe thing," he said. His life is full of examples of this. A Negro, he selected engineering as a   career when "it wasn't popular to hire Negroes." In doing this, he ignored "the safe routes for Negroes" -- the ministry. "I come from a long line of ministers." He said the professions of medicine, law and teaching are all occupations which a Negro can follow without having to depend on whites for support. Although his family was "one hundred per cent behind me," they couldn't help him financially. His father had died when he was three weeks old. His stepfather worked as a janitor in a Des Moines store. While a student at North High School in Des Moines, he shined shoes at the Savery Hotel. After graduation in 1939, he continued this occupation for one and a half years, sometimes working as many as eighty hours a week, to save money for college. When he came to the University as an engineering student, he set up a shoe shining shop in the Jefferson Hotel, again to provide himself with school and living expenses. He had completed three years of college when he decided to enlist in the army.  "I could have gotten deferred and perhaps never have gone in," he said, but he recalled that it was something he felt he had to do. While in the army  he earned an army certificate in electrical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Though the work was equivalent to a bachelor's degree, it did not fulfill University requirements in the liberal arts. After the war he returned to the University and earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. His next decision was whether to begin practice as an engineer or begin graduate study. "I had acquired a wife by this time," he said. But he went on to graduate school, earning both a master's and a doctorate in mechanics and hydraulics. Dr. Hubbard has been a member of the Iowa faculty since 1946. In addition to his teaching, he has been research engineer in the Institute of Hydraulic Research. While teaching and research have been his primary activities to date, he has also done some traveling -- to England, France, Switzerland, Argentina, and Japan -- to confer with engineers. The most recent trip was one to Japan in April. He is also secretary to the Board in Control of Athletics at Iowa, for a term which will end in 1968. One of his outside activities which is closely tied to his field is the Hubbard Instrument Company of Iowa City, of which he is president. The small firm specializes in measurement consulting and the manufacture of an electronic instrument used in research on fluid turbulence. Developed in research at the University, it started out about the size of a closet. The use of transistors and solid state components has reduced it to about the size of a "Breadbox," Dr. Hubbard said grinning, borrowing a term from a television panel show. With an office in Old Capitol, Dean Hubbard is responsible to the vice president for academic affairs, Willard Boyd. Influencing his decision to take the job was "the people with whom I would be working," he said. "I knew them and felt I could work in harmony with them. This was the biggest single factor. In the end, it is the people who determine what you do, not the job description." In accepting the new position, he has had to give up teaching duties, at least for the time being, and postpone accepting a Fulbright lectureship to Chile. He had been scheduled to spend the second semester and the summer at the hydraulics laboratory at the University of Chile in Santiago. As his job is a new one in University administration, there are no firm guidelines as to what it does and does not include. He said student affairs is definitely one aspect of his responsibility, especially a concern with the effort to prevent impersonality in University life as the school grows in size and complexity. Although his official contact with students will be minimal, only through his membership on the Committee on Student Life, he will work closely with various administrators and faculty groups to help coordinate information as well as activities related to student development and growth. The new Dean is vitally concerned with the quality of teaching and with the University's responsibility of preparing college teachers. He is assisting the Dean of the Graduate College Dr. Duane Spriestersbach, in the development of an im-

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Practicing what he preaches The University has given Dr. Philip G. Hubbard a chance to practice what he preaches. At forty-four, a professor of mechanics and hyraulics, he is the new Dean for Academic Affairs, an area far removed from the technical aspects of engineering. Admitting that it is unusual for "an engineer to go this far astray," he said, "For several years I've emphasized that what we (engineers) do influence our civilization, our culture, and whether we are to be destroyed. An engineer should be concerned with the social consequences of his work, not just the end. We have to be involved at the elementary level of planning." He feels his new post will bring him in at the planning level. He said, "When the opportunity was presented, I thought, 'you've been insisting on this so here is the chance. What are you going to do?'" A man who believes in accepting challenges, Dr. Hubbard made the decision to leave an assured career in the field of engineering. "My life hasn't been based on doing the safe thing," he said. His life is full of examples of this. A Negro, he selected engineering as a career when "it wasn't popular to hire Negroes." In doing this, he ignored "the safe routes for Negroes" -- the ministry. "I come from a long line of ministers." He said the professions of medicine, law and teaching are all occupations which a Negro can follow without having to depend on whites for support. Although his family was "one hundred per cent behind me," they couldn't help him financially. His father had died when he was three weeks old. His stepfather worked as a janitor in a Des Moines store. While a student at North High School in Des Moines, he shined shoes at the Savery Hotel. After graduation in 1939, he continued this occupation for one and a half years, sometimes working as many as eighty hours a week, to save money for college. When he came to the University as an engineering student, he set up a shoe shining shop in the Jefferson Hotel, again to provide himself with school and living expenses. He had completed three years of college when he decided to enlist in the army. "I could have gotten deferred and perhaps never have gone in," he said, but he recalled that it was something he felt he had to do. While in the army he earned an army certificate in electrical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Though the work was equivalent to a bachelor's degree, it did not fulfill University requirements in the liberal arts. After the war he returned to the University and earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. His next decision was whether to begin practice as an engineer or begin graduate study. "I had acquired a wife by this time," he said. But he went on to graduate school, earning both a master's and a doctorate in mechanics and hydraulics. Dr. Hubbard has been a member of the Iowa faculty since 1946. In addition to his teaching, he has been research engineer in the Institute of Hydraulic Research. While teaching and research have been his primary activities to date, he has also done some traveling -- to England, France, Switzerland, Argentina, and Japan -- to confer with engineers. The most recent trip was one to Japan in April. He is also secretary to the Board in Control of Athletics at Iowa, for a term which will end in 1968. One of his outside activities which is closely tied to his field is the Hubbard Instrument Company of Iowa City, of which he is president. The small firm specializes in measurement consulting and the manufacture of an electronic instrument used in research on fluid turbulence. Developed in research at the University, it started out about the size of a closet. The use of transistors and solid state components has reduced it to about the size of a "Breadbox," Dr. Hubbard said grinning, borrowing a term from a television panel show. With an office in Old Capitol, Dean Hubbard is responsible to the vice president for academic affairs, Willard Boyd. Influencing his decision to take the job was "the people with whom I would be working," he said. "I knew them and felt I could work in harmony with them. This was the biggest single factor. In the end, it is the people who determine what you do, not the job description." In accepting the new position, he has had to give up teaching duties, at least for the time being, and postpone accepting a Fulbright lectureship to Chile. He had been scheduled to spend the second semester and the summer at the hydraulics laboratory at the University of Chile in Santiago. As his job is a new one in University administration, there are no firm guidelines as to what it does and does not include. He said student affairs is definitely one aspect of his responsibility, especially a concern with the effort to prevent impersonality in University life as the school grows in size and complexity. Although his official contact with students will be minimal, only through his membership on the Committee on Student Life, he will work closely with various administrators and faculty groups to help coordinate information as well as activities related to student development and growth. The new Dean is vitally concerned with the quality of teaching and with the University's responsibility of preparing college teachers. He is assisting the Dean of the Graduate College Dr. Duane Spriestersbach, in the development of an im-