Robert B. Pond Sr., Johns Hopkins' first metallurgist and a
professor emeritus in the Whiting School's Department of Materials
Science and Engineering, died Oct. 5 at Carroll Hospice
Dove House in Westminster, Md. He was 89.
A member of the faculty from February 1947 until his
retirement in 1998, Pond was devoted to teaching, research,
consulting and lecturing in the field of physical
metallurgy. He also was known to generations of students
for the bow ties he fashioned out of aluminum for himself
and each new professor in the department, all of whom
donned them for commencement ceremonies.
"Bob Pond was one of the best teachers at Hopkins
Engineering," recalled Bob Green, Pond's colleague and
friend of nearly 40 years with whom he founded the
Materials Department in 1983. "He knew all the things that
are in the books, but he also knew the practical side of
things from his industry experience," said Green, who
recently retired. "He was friendly and enthusiastic, and as
a teacher he was very approachable and kind, even when
correcting your mistakes. All the students loved him. He
taught me most of what I know and was a wonderful mentor
and friend."
Widely considered the father of rapid solidification
technology, Pond trained as an engineer at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute, served in the Navy during World War
II and worked at Bethlehem Steel Co. before coming to Johns
Hopkins as a laboratory technician. He was accepted into
the doctoral program but didn't have time to take all his
classes because he began teaching veterans entering the
university on the GI Bill. He was later elevated to the
rank of professor, one of the few ever attaining that rank
without a PhD.
His work involved solidification phenomena, the practice of
cire perdue casting and growing multiple metallic single
crystals in a single mold. For many years, Pond studied the
nature of ductility at deformation rates exceeding the
velocity of sound in metals and alloys and the deformation
of single crystals on a microscopic scale. He took the
first high magnification movies of slip bands forming and
propagating during tensile formation, using a technique he
christened "cinemicrography."
In addition to his work at Johns Hopkins, Pond served at
various times as a visiting professor at Aberdeen Proving
Ground's Terminal Ballistics Lab, research and development
director for National Extrusion and an expert witness on
metallurgical issues for Lloyds of London and others. He
was a charter member and past president of Maryland
Institute of Metals and a life member and fellow of ASM
International, served on many committees and received
numerous national awards. When Pond received the Johns
Hopkins Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award in
1996, students described him in their evaluations as
"pretty cool," "incredible" and "the best professor I ever
had."
More than 500 times, Pond gave his favorite lecture--an
audience-participation event called "Fun in Metals"--to
rapt crowds in high schools, colleges and elsewhere, and he
prided himself on being able to give three-hour lectures
without notes.
The house in Westminster that he shared with his wife of 65
years, Mary "Dolly" Wright Pond, and their six children let
him take his work home. It had started as a little
farmhouse, and Pond wrapped a big house around it--but not
before he had fashioned three laboratories, two of them
underground in the backyard, where he and the kids could
play with metals.
Nick Jones, dean of the Whiting School, said that Pond's
dedication as teacher and scholar continues to be
recognized through two awards at the Whiting School: The
Robert B. Pond Senior Achievement Award, presented annually
to the senior student in Materials Science who best
exemplifies Pond's devotion to scholarly and humane values,
and the Robert B. Pond Excellence in Teaching Award, given
each year to a faculty member who is committed to
excellence in instruction and instilling in students the
desire to learn and whose dedication to undergraduate
students is exemplary.
In addition to his wife, Pond is survived by their children
and spouses, Robert B. Pond Jr. and Angela Pond, Mary Jo
and John Winter, Bertie B. Pond, William W. and Peggy Pond,
Edward and Laurie Pond, and Margaret P. and David Shifler;
18 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Services were held Oct. 9 at Westminster United Methodist
Church, and internment took place in Poplar Springs
Cemetery in Franklin, Va. The family requests that memorial
contributions be made to the Carroll Hospice Dove House,
292 Stoner Ave., Westminster, MD 21157.