Dr. Hugh Bell Ogburn 1923 – 2007 and Sihon Cicero Ogburn Jr. 1900 – 1976
Dr. Hugh Bell Ogburn was a chemical engineer with B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. At Princeton Dr Hugh Bell Ogburn studied under Dr. Albert Einstein.
He was
- Vice President at Atlantic Richfield Oil Company in Philadelphia,
- a Vice President of Union Carbide in New York,
- a Vice Presient of the M.W. Kellogg Company in New York,
- a Vice President of Weyerhuaser Chemicals in Seattle and
- a Vice President of Pacific Resources Oil Company in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Dr. Ogburn was a Lieutenant in the United States Navy in World War II and was the Damage Control Officer of the Battleship California in the Pacific Theater involved in Naval engagements with the Imperial Japanese Navy at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and received several combat decorations.
Dr Ogburn registered a number of patents in the chemical engineering field relating
to the petroleum industry, and was a consultant in the 1950’s for the U.S. Government’s
“Manhattan Project”, with a top secret clearance to work on the hydrogen bomb.
He was also involved in humanitarian work being on the board of directors of several hospitals, one in Philadelphia and one in Honolulu.
Dr. Hugh Bell Ogburn was the son of Sihon Cicero Ogburn Jr.
Sihon Cicero Ogburn Jr earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of North Carolina. He also had a distinguished academic and business career. He taught Chemistry at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, then taught Chemistry at Bucknell College in Pennsylvania. He then worked in the business field as a Vice President for the Foote Mineral Company,and later was President of his own chemical engineering consulting firm.
Sihon Cicero Ogburn Jr. registered a patent in the 1950’s for inventing a new chemical method of extracting pure platinum from mineral ore that contained platinum, this method was more efficient and less expensive than previous platinum extracting methods. Sihon Cicero Ogburn Jr. served in the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant between World War I and World II