Obituary of I.H. Godlove
What follows is taken from ISCC News, issue #114, September 1954.
Black is a somber color. Here it calls attention, and helps to express something of our deep sense of loss in the death, on August l4th 1954, of our News Letter Editor, Dr. I. H. Godlove. His name remains on the masthead for this and the November "Jubilee Issue" since he bad both issues so near completion. His wife, Margaret Noss Godlove, who has worked with I. H. on the News Letter for some time, will complete both numbers. Dr. Godlove had looked forward for so long, and had planned so eagerly for the Jubilee Issue to celebrate the l00th issue of the News Letter under his editorship, that we quite agree with Mrs. Godlove in sincerely doubting that he want a memorial issue made of it. This was to be an issue "of rejoicing arid accomplishment." We
therefore shall hold to Dr. Godlove's plans for the Jubilee Issue, knowing
that this in itself may be the memorial he would best like.
Dorothy Nickerson, ISCC President
Dr. I(saac) H(ahn) Godlove was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 13, 1892, one of four children of Lewis and Lillie Godlove. He attended Washington University of St. Louis, B.S. 1914, A.M. 1915. He was a fellow at Illinois in 1917, where he was awarded the degree of Ph. D. in chemistry in 1926. He first taught, as professor of chemistry at the Missouri State Normal School, Cape Girardeau, 1915-16, then as a teacher of chemistry at the University of Illinois, 1916-21, and as associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, 1921-25. In 1923 he married Esther Alice Hurlbut of Washington, D.C., whose loss in 1931 affected him deeply, and changed considerably the course of his work in the following few years. They had one son, Terry Francis, graduated from Lafayette in 1950, now a graduate student at Yale, a son in whom Dr. Godlove took great pride. From 1926-30 Dr. Godlove served as director of the shortlived. Munsell Research Laboratory (under whose direction the Munsell Color Company produced the papers far the 1929 Munsell BOOK OF COLOR). He directed the exhibit on color for the New York Museum of Science and Industry in 1930-31, was special color editor for Webster’s International Dictionary in 1921-32, and directed his own color service 1932-35.
Dr. Godlove went back to industry
in '1935 as physicist and chemist in the technical laboratory of the E. I.
du Pont de Nemours and Company at Wilmington where he worked under the capable
direction of Dr. R. E. Rose, whose friendship he grew to prize. In 1943, following
Dr. Rose's death, Dr. Godlove moved to the laboratories of the General Aniline
and Film Corporation at Easton, Pa., where he was associated up to the time
of his death. On August 6, 1949, he married Margaret Noss of Wilmington, Del.,
his devoted companion to the time of his death, and his co-worker in such activities
as his News Letter editorship and his more recent work for Webster's. He served
on the Board of Trustees of the Munsell Color Foundation from the date of its
establishment in 1943 until his death; in 1948-49 he was Chairman of the Inter-Society
Color Council; since 1937 he had been Editor of the News Letter. He died in
Easton, Pa., on August 14, 1954, at 12:30 A.M., after undergoing an emergency
operation on August 8 for an appendix which had ruptured. He fought hard to
live, but peritonitis won the fight.
Dr. Godlove was active in both
the Optical Society of America and the American Association of Textile Chemists
and Colorists, and was a member of the Archeological Society of America. He
served on the Colorimetry Committee of the O.S.A. for many years, and was a.
joint author of its 1953 report: The Science of Color. For many years he served
either as member or chairman of the AATCC Color Committee, and represented
the AATCC in the Inter-Society Color Council as one of its delegates. His specialty
was the measurement and specification of color, including the expression of
small-color-differences. He was interested also in fluorescing colors, indeed,
until 10: 30 P.M. on the evening on which he was operated, he had expected
to attend a session the next day in New York of Dr. Goldwasser's committee
on ISCC Problem 18: The Colorimetry of Fluorescing Materials. His avocation
concerned aesthetic problems in color, color harmony, and the history of color
in art and archeology. His many articles in the News Letter on such subjects
bear witness to this interest. He was an ardent tennis player until very recent
years, and was a good bridge player (he once spent a great many months figuring
out the probabilities of holding certain types of card distributions). His
interests were wide, his intellect keen, and. he was most generous in sharing
his wide knowledge of the physics and chemistry of color with those who sought
his help.
The Inter-Society Color Council
has suffered a great loss. |
