Clarke Alden Rodman Papers
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0274
The papers include correspondence, motion picture film, photographs, reports, and transparencies.
The papers date from 1946 – 1996 with the bulk of the collection dating from 1960 – 1989. There are eleven folders with approximately seventy photographs, twenty overhead transparencies, three pieces of felt and one reel of 16 mm motion picture film.
His widow, Katherine Perry Rodman transferred the papers to Special Collections after Clarke Rodman’s death in 1997. Edward Homanoff, a colleague, helped weed out material leaving only items related to Rodman’s research and information about filtration.
The papers document research pertaining to the manufacturing of oil filters, air filters, fuel filters, and other automotive parts and accessories as part of his work as an employee of FRAM Corporation. It also documents Mr. Rodman’s continued interest and involvement in the development and implementation of wastewater treatment technologies and water pollution controlling devices.
There is also a model of an oil or water filter mounted on a wooden base with a wooden cover.
The son of Francis C. and Mary Tucker Rodman, Clarke Alden Rodman was born in Newton, Massachusetts on August 31, 1921. Graduating from Loomis Institute in Connecticut, he began studies in chemistry at Harvard College in 1939. Rodman interrupted his studies from 1941--1943, when he first worked for Ranger Aircraft Engines, Inc., in Farmingdale, New York, and then was drafted into the Navy. After three months, he came down with a kidney ailment and was discharged in 1943 for medical reasons. Returning to Harvard and he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1946.
Upon graduation Rodman joined Pirnie & Lee, a China trading company, affiliated with the two southern provinces of China. The business plan was to barter American manufactured goods for natural resources such as tung oil. By the end of 1946, the advances of the Chinese Communists resulted in the liquidation of this enterprise. Rodman returned to New England and began working for the Fram Filtration Corporation located in Providence Rhode Island. He then spent the next four decades working for Fram and retired as a senior research scientist. In the course of his distinguished career, Rodman contributed in many ways to turning Fram into America's number one oil filter brand. The brand quickly developed into a trusted name among automotive maintenance products. During the post World War II period, Fram became a major supplier not only for automobile manufacture, but also for vehicles used by the armed services.
A holder of eight patents on filter media construction and chemistry, Rodman was awarded the Bendix Award for outstanding technical achievement in 1977. He published several technical papers on filtration theory and organic waste treatment. Additionally, Rodman chaired the 1973 and 1981 American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists’ National Textile Environmental Symposia in Washington, D.C. His memberships included the American Chemical Society, the American Filtration and Separations Society, the American Society of Textile Chemists and Colorists, and the Fiber Society. Although he retired in 1988, Rodman continued to be active in professional organizations and served as an associate at the Fram/Allied Filtration Research Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island that he helped to establish. His involvement with Clemson University was vital for the development in the School of Textiles of a joint project between Fram and General Electric. The research was done on the use of non-woven fabric technology in automated manufacturing systems for automotive chassis and bodies.
Clarke Rodman’s interests extended beyond his professional activities and included choral singing in the University Glee Club of Providence and the Central Congregational Church Choir, the theater, sports, traveling, and family. On December 26, 1960 Rodman married Katherine S. Perry, from East Greenwich, Rhode Island. They had two children, Susannah, born in 1962, and Edward, born in 1964. He died on March 15, 1997 of congestive heart failure.
3.4 Cubic Feet (consisting of 86 folders in seven document boxes, one oversize folder and one oversize box with 11 with approximately 70 photographs, 20 overhead transparencies, three pieces of felt, one model of a filter and one reel of 16 mm motion picture film.)
English
Clarke Alden Rodman had a distinguished career as a chemist, engineer and inventor. He worked for the FRAM Corporation beginning in 1946 as researcher on oil filtration. Rodman concentrated upon research related to filter media for filters used in the automobile/truck industry. The papers document research pertaining to the manufacturing of filters and other automotive parts and accessories. It also documents Mr. Rodman’s continued interest and involvement in the development and implementation of wastewater treatment technologies and water pollution controlling devices. It includes some correspondence but consists primarily of research reports and related material.
The collection has been arranged in an alphabetical subject file with items within folders in chronological order.
Katherine Perry Rodman donated the papers to Special Collections after Clarke Rodman's death in 1997. Edward Homanoff, a colleague, helped weed out material leaving only items related to Rodman's research and information about filtration.
Katherine Rodman; 1997.
Collection accessioned as 85-33.
Stanislav Trembach prepared this register in 2003 as part of work in History 893 Archives Practicum with further editorial work done by Michael Kohl and processing help from student assistant Christine Mollineaux in 2004.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository