Raoul L. Menville, Sr.: A Visionary Behind LSU Chemistry's Foundations

Each year, thousands of students walk past the entrance to Lecture Room 103 in Williams Hall, yet few pause to consider the significance of the name etched above it. The name Raoul L. Menville, Sr., represents a pivotal figure in the history and growth of the LSU Department of Chemistry.

Menville, a Louisiana native, joined LSU as a freshman majoring in chemistry in 1901. After earning his B.S., Professor Charles E. Coates hired Menville as an instructor in 1906 and promoted him to the rank of professor around 1908. Menville was one of only three faculty members in professorial ranks, making the department equal in size to the English department.¹

He contributed to LSU’s academic community during a period when the university expanded its focus on areas essential to Louisiana’s industrial landscape, including sugar chemistry and other chemical research fields.²

In 1928, Menville later earned his Ph.D. from Ohio State University with a dissertation titled “The Catalytic Oxidation of Carbon.”³ His specialty was analytical chemistry, authoring several books, and he was regarded as an outstanding teacher covering the new area of catalysis and sugar technology-related courses.⁴

During Menville’s tenure, Coates established the new College of Pure and Applied Science, which included physics, pure and applied chemistry, chemical engineering, sugar engineering, sugar agriculture, agricultural chemistry, and biochemistry. Coates reasoned that the combination of chemical engineering and chemistry was crucial for the success of his Industrial Research Institute at LSU.

In 1937, coinciding with Coates’ retirement, all chemical engineering-related courses and three faculty members were transferred to the College of Engineering, re-establishing the Department of Chemical Engineering to meet accreditation requirements.²

Menville, now the longest-serving faculty member in Chemistry after Coates, switched exclusively to Chemistry and was named Dean of the College of Chemistry and Physics, as well as head of the Department of Chemistry.¹ He remained dean for 6 years until his health began to decline, retiring around 1942.

 

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1. Traynham, James G. (1989). Creating the Environment: A History of the LSU Chemistry Department, The Proceedings of the Louisiana Academy of Science (51), 1-14.
2. ChE Centennial Celebration: 100 Years of Chemical Engineering at LSU, 1908-2008 (2008). LSU Cain Department of Chemical Engineering.
3. Hull, C. & West, C. (1929). Doctorate Conferred in the Sciences by American Universities, 1928-1929, National Research Council.
4. Coates, J., Coates Collected Papers, LLMVC, Editor. 1881-1973, LSU Libraries: Baton Rouge.