Crawford H. Greenewalt
August 16, 1902 - September 27, 1993
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Scientific Discipline: Engineering Sciences Membership Type:
Emeritus
(elected 1952)
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Crawford H. Greenewalt served as president of the DuPont Company from 1948 to 1962. In that time he oversaw the development of synthetic fibers including nylon, Lycra, and Dacron. During World War II he worked on the Manhattan Project as a liaison between University of Chicago physicists and DuPont engineers. He sought to bridge the gap between practice and theory by emphasizing safety and margins of error. After the war he began to build DuPont’s nuclear power program with technology and methodology acquired during the work on the Manhattan project.
Greenewalt graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS degree in chemical engineering. He served at the DuPont Company from 1948 to 1967 as president and as chairman. Appointed president of the American Philosophical Society, he had many interests, including ornithology and high-speed photography. His book Hummingbirds, published in 1960, contains high-speed photographs of hummingbirds; he also published Bird Songs: Acoustics and Physiology in 1968.
