Echoes

Noel Moore remembers the excitement the first time he drove onto the Rose Polytechnic Institute campus in 1968. It’s the same feeling he realizes today as a chemical engineering professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

“I love coming to work each day. It’s a rewarding feeling,” said Moore, 63. “It’s a lot of fun to be with students. Even though you may not do a great job of teaching, you have some impact on them and are proud of their accomplishments as alumni.”

These same alumni may not have appreciated Moore’s attention to detail in the classroom, especially during oral and written laboratory reports. He had no misgivings for misuses of the English language and punctuation, and mathematical errors.

“I want every graduate to be a better engineer than I am. I want them to set their own standards high,” said Moore, who learned his lessons well from another standard-bearer, former chemical engineering department chairperson Sam Hite. Hite was Moore’s mentor as a student at Purdue University (1956 graduate), and he hired Moore for the University of Kentucky faculty in 1964 and Rose-Hulman in 1968.

“I was grateful when Sam decided to settle down,” says Moore, showcasing his trademark sense of humor.

That ability to laugh at himself helped Moore overcome one of the most embarrassing situations in his professional career.
During a sabbatical leave at Eli Lilly and Company’s Clinton Laboratories in 1993-94, Moore made some last-minute changes on a project that determined the material balance of a particular solvent at the plant.

His superior, 1978 Rose-Hulman alumnus Darrell Staggs, found an anonymous spreadsheet on his desk. The results seemed to make no physical sense. Moore had made an error in a formula that was copied throughout the spreadsheet.

Moore tried to retrieve the report before Staggs could find it the next morning.

Staggs’ response: “This was my chance for revenge for all those ‘corrective messages’ delivered to me by a certain chemical engineering professor back in the ’70s.”

“Darrell already had posted copies of the report throughout the plant for all my former students to see. They all got a kick out of it,” Moore said.

Corrective markings, in red pen, were scattered throughout the spreadsheet. Some of the Staggs’ comments — in Moore-like fashion — on the bleeding document were:

What was Moore’s reaction? “I thought it was great,” chuckled Moore, bemused by the memory. “I’m glad I gave chemical engineering graduates something to laugh about.” (Staggs is considering having the spreadsheet laminated and displayed in the Department of Chemical Engineering hallway of Olin Hall.)

Moore’s contributions in the classroom are no laughing matter. He was responsible for establishing the process control and instrumentation courses in chemical engineering at Rose-Hulman. He earned the Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award (1981) and the Inland Steel-Ryerson Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award (1981); served as Department of Chemical Engineering head for 10 years (1987-97); was director of the Operation Catapult summer program for 11 years (1984-95); director of research and graduate studies; and faculty representative to the Board of Trustees.

In the community, Moore earned the Silver Beaver Award, the highest award presented to a volunteer leader in the Boy Scouts of America; was an early member of Terre Haute’s Air Pollution Control Agency (1969-72); was a finalist for a Terre Award for outstanding community service; and is also active in his church.

“I should have said ‘No’ more times than I did. But, I seldom regretted saying ‘Yes,’” Moore said. “I get a kick out of service and helping somebody. It makes me happy.”

As for regrets, as you can imagine, Moore has few in his 30 years on the Rose-Hulman faculty. Besides teaching chemical engineering courses, he also lent a helping hand to lead classes in basic electrical circuits, mechanical controls, fluids and calculus II. He also stepped in to supervise a chemistry lab for a quarter.