Guide to the Dale R. Corson Papers,
1935-2002

Dale R. Corson was born in Pittsburg, Kansas in 1914. He received his B.A. degree from the College of Emporia in 1934, his M.A. from the University of Kansas in 1935, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1938. In 1940 he discovered astatine, one of the last missing elements on the Periodic Table, while he was a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley. He was a staff member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory from 1941 to 1943, and later served as a technical advisor at Air Force Headquarters in Washington, D.C. At the end of the war, he joined the staff of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. In 1946 he came to Cornell University as an assistant professor of physics and helped design the Cornell Synchrotron. During his time at Cornell, he co-authored a textbook, Introduction to Electromagnetic Fields and Waves. He was appointed associate professor of physics in 1947, became a full professor in 1956, was named chairman of the Physics Department in 1956, and became Dean of the College of Engineering in 1959. Dale Corson served as Provost of the University from 1963 to 1969, becoming Cornell’s eighth president in 1969. He guided the University through the political upheavals and economic troubles of the late 1960s and the 1970s.

In 1977, he resigned his position and was appointed Chancellor of the University, serving in that capacity until 1979. The Medical College was a major focus of his attention during this period.

Upon retiring from the Cornell administration, Corson continued to work as a consultant in the fields of engineering and physics, and he was involved in many national and international efforts. He founded the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, and he headed a study sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Scientific Communication and National Security (1982). It defined research universities' concern about research areas that are not classified but are deemed militarily useful. He also served as a consultant to the Chinese University Development Project, an initiative funded by the World Bank. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1981.

He helped to found Kendal at Ithaca, a retirement community, in the 1990s. Throughout his life, he has been an avid amateur photographer, and his work has been exhibited in many settings.

Papers primarily relating to Corson's teaching, research, and administrative activities prior to his appointment as Provost in 1963 and after resigning from his position as President in 1977. Includes course material from his graduate studies at the University of Kansas, the University of California at Berkeley, and his teaching career at Cornell; notes, papers, and research material from Kansas, Berkeley, the War Department, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratories, and Cornell; administrative files, including meeting minutes, agendas, programs, and photographs related to the Physics Department, the College of Engineering, the synchrotron, and various other academic units; development and other files relating to the Medical College, corporate and alumni relations, and the Board of Trustees, and to Corson's activities relating to the Library Advisory Council, the Music Committee, the Arecibo Observatory, and Deep Springs College and other educational institutions. Correspondents include E.B. White, Floyd R. Newman, Leslie R. Severinghaus, and Philip Will.

Includes material relating to student activism; race relations on campus and the Vietnam War; the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable; the Chinese University Development Project; the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering; and Corson's avocations, including photography and travel and his community activities with Kendal at Ithaca, the Sciencenter, the Tompkins County Trust Company, and the Tower Club.

Collection includes appointment books, diaries, calendars, notebooks, diplomas, awards, memorial documents, invitations, oral history transcripts, and a videotape and program from a 1999 symposium honoring Dr. Corson, "Strategy for a Great Research University."

Also, DVD, videotape and program from "Strategy for a Great Research University: A Symposium Honoring Dale Raymond Corson," December 5-7, 1999. DVD, "The Corson Symposium," produced by the Internet-First University Press, includes an 18-minute video tribute, the speeches at a gala banquet and a luncheon (71 minutes), and the audio for more than 13 major addresses presented at the Symposium, including Frank Rhodes and Hunter Rawlings, as well as photographs of family and friends, and presentations by the Glee Club and chimesmasters. Photographs by Jon Reis of Dale Corson's 90th birthday party, April, 2004.