Blake Ragsdale Van Leer

Blake Ragsdale Van Leer (August 16, 1893 – January 23, 1956) was the fifth president of Georgia Institute of Technology from 1944 until his death. Van Leer was born in Mangum, Oklahoma. After his father's death in 1897 he lived in a Masonic Orphanage in Galveston. He graduated from Purdue University with honors in 1915 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1924 he married Ella Lillian Wall in Berkeley, California. From 1932 to 1937 he was a Dean at the University of Florida. In 1937 he became the Dean of the School of Engineering at NC State University. While there he initiated as an honorary of the NCSU Chapter of Theta Tau Professional Engineering Fraternity. Around 1940 with the permission of Dean Harrelson, Van Leer gave half...