JOHN J. MCKETTA JR. (1915-2019)

BY THOMAS F. EDGAR, ROGER BONNECAZE,
MICHAEL POEHL, AND THOMAS TRUSKETT

JOHN J. MCKETTA JR., known to friends and colleagues as Johnny, passed away Jan. 15, 2019, at the age of 103.

He was born Oct. 17, 1915, in Wyano, Pennsylvania, to Ukrainian immigrants John J. and Mary Gelet McKetta; he grew up in the coal mining town, speaking only Ukrainian until he attended first grade. After graduating from high school, he followed in the footsteps of his hardworking father and older brother and mined coal for two years. Said John, “I hated every day but I had nowhere else to go but the coal mines.” His brother gave him a book on coal carbonization, and John decided that he would “rather be a chemical engineer and make chemicals than dig.” McKetta tried many things early in life, including acting in Shakespearean plays, learning to box (he was a Golden Gloves welterweight champion), teaching himself to play the trumpet (badly), and even making bleach in the basement of a friend. Most of these endeavors were motivated by the desire to make some money, which was in extremely short supply during the Depression.

His coal-mining career ended at age 20, when he applied to 54 colleges seeking an education in chemical engineering and a job at the university to pay for the tuition. He received no response until his 54th letter — a sure sign of the family characteristic of persistence. He attended Tri-State College (now Trine University) in Indiana and went on to pursue his M.S. (1944) and Ph.D. (1946) in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan. In 1943, he met and married Helen Elisabeth Smith, known forevermore as Pinky. In her, he found the “love affair” he had seen with his own parents. She was at his side for 67 years and the mother of his four children.

Highly recruited after graduating with his Ph.D., he knew he wanted to work in fossil fuels, which meant Texas or Oklahoma. John joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin as assistant professor in 1946; the next year he was promoted to associate professor. He established an extensive research program in high-pressure phase equilibrium and thermodynamics. He also placed his imprint on the Unit Operations Laboratory and Industrial Chemical Calculations (ChE 317) by introducing the concept of an English department grader for laboratory reports. This practice continued through the 1980s, with other UT engineering departments adopting it to develop writing skills.

In the course of his work focusing on the thermodynamic properties of hydrocarbons, he published over 400 papers and wrote or edited 87 books, including the 68-volume Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design (CRC Press). His work focused on problems central to the petrochemical industry led to contributions including experimental measurements for predicting water content of high-pressure gases and liquids; gas densities needed in metering fluids and predicting properties for process plant design; and vapor liquid equilibria needed in petrochemical design. His broader interest in and impact on the practice of engineering and engineering education was reflected in a number of papers as well. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1970 and, in 2009, was selected by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) as one of the “50 Chemical Engineers of the Foundation Age.”

During his time as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering (1949-51), John worked closely with Kenneth Kobe, William A. Cunningham, and Matthew Van Winkle as a team of leaders and advocates for the department. Dubbed the “four horsemen,” they reportedly would “march up the hill to the President’s office, bypassing all intermediate officials.” And they reportedly usually returned with favorable results.

In 1952 John took a short break from his professorship to serve as editorial director of Petroleum Refiner at Gulf Publishing Company in Houston. There he led the creation of the publication’s replacement, Hydrocarbon Processing, which focused on the rapid growth of petrochemicals and refining.

When he returned to UT in 1954, John was invited by the dean of engineering, Willis Woolrich, to serve on the dean’s study committee. The committee urged Dean Woolrich to establish an Engineering Foundation composed of distinguished professional engineers who would solicit funds for salaries, grants, and fellowships; coordinate curriculum evaluation; and advise the dean on current educational trends. The goal of the foundation was to encourage new research and foster academic development in the college. The Engineering Foundation was authorized by the Board of Regents in 1955 and was fully operational by 1957. Professors Cunningham, McKetta, and Archie Straiton (NAE 1976) worked with each department to establish permanent endowments. Today, all engineering schools in the United States have such foundations to connect students with industry and fund relevant research.

It was also during this time that the annual April picnic began at John and Pinky’s home near Mount Bonnell in Austin, Texas. The couple are remembered as deeply generous, as they not only opened their Austin lakeside home to students but also welcomed everyone they met into their family. The picnic at the “Place on the Lake” (as students called it) was a beloved tradition that continued until 2010.

From 1958 to 1963 John served once again as chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering. He was active in developing new faculty, encouraging curriculum improvements, and soliciting funds for the UT engineering program. According to the published history, Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas: 1910–1990 (Howard Rase; University of Texas at Austin, 1990), “[Johnny’s] influence kept the common academic disease of overseriousness from ever gaining a foothold in the chemical engineering department at UT.” Johnny was known for practical jokes, throwing chalk at sleeping students, 50-second quizzes, engineering rules of thumb, wearing his burnt-orange suit to meetings, writing his weight on the chalkboard when he was trying to go on a diet, and inspiring his students to become the best people and engineers possible.

As chair, he was receptive to suggestions from the faculty and open to implementing new and innovative ideas. In 1958 the Chemical Engineering Evaluation Committee report met the charter obligations of the Engineering Foundation formed a few years prior and provided recommendations for the department. This report, along with close contact with industrial leaders, led John to propose a permanent visiting committee that would meet annually to study and discuss department issues and make recommendations. This committee (now called the External Advisory Council) has continued to meet annually, providing invaluable feedback and suggestions for improvement.

In 1961 John was elected national president of the AIChE. Over the course of that year, usually on weekends, he visited every local AIChE chapter in the country, speaking to them about the state of energy while also speaking very highly of the UT Department of Chemical Engineering. He was widely in demand to give invited talks because of his ability to entertain while providing audiences with useful information. His travels proved valuable, as knowledge of the UT Chemical Engineering Department spread nationally and the reputation of the university was greatly enhanced.

John was appointed dean of engineering in 1963 and for the next six years worked to strengthen the Engineering Foundation Advisory Group while continuing to solicit outside funds for the College of Engineering. He used his charisma and connections to share his deep loyalty for the University of Texas at Austin with engineers worldwide.

He was known as a firm and good-natured leader, always with an eye for ways to better serve his students. With them in mind, John set out in the 1960s to improve pedagogy in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He hired education expert Dr. James Stice from Arkansas to come to UT Austin to teach engineering professors how to improve classroom teaching as part of his new initiative, the Teaching Effectiveness Program.

In 1969 Harry Ransom, chancellor of the UT System, offered John an unprecedented third term as dean of engineering. Desiring to return to his 14 Ph.D. students, his research, and the classroom, John declined the offer. Ransom upped his offer and asked John to serve as vice chancellor of the UT System and assist him in starting four new universities in the upcoming year by overseeing all of the presidents in the rest of the system. John accepted the year-long commitment, which was fraught with administrative challenges for the university in the face of the resignation of Ransom and Norman Hackerman (NAE 1971) (then UT Austin’s president).

In the year that followed his vice chancellorship, he received over 30 offers from universities to become their president and many offers from oil corporations for the position of president as well. His loyalty to UT Austin prevailed once again. He was proud of what he had built and the relationships he had forged.

In the 1970s John received numerous public speaking requests. His reputation preceded him as an expert on energy issues, and the United States was facing a near-future energy shortage. Elisabeth Sharp McKetta’s 2017 biography of her grandfather, Energy (The University of Texas Press, 2017), references his “famous energy lectures” during this time as a natural summation of his work. He had a “prime vantage point to see and understand the entire issue of how America was gaining and spending energy.”

It was during this period that John began receiving requests from presidents of the United States, starting in 1972 with Richard Nixon, who appointed him chair of the newly established National Energy Policy Commission, with seven national energy experts. During the next presidential term, Gerald Ford asked for John’s advice, and John happily shared his opinion that “he wanted tighter regulations on how American citizens used energy, and he wanted looser regulations on how American chemical engineers could create it.” When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he sought John’s input, and when he was elected president he continued to call on him for his expert advice on energy and how America should use and generate it. Other requests came from Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

John received many honors and recognitions of his outstanding engineering accomplishments, devotion to his students and to the two universities who had profound impact on his life and career, and to humanity. In 1997, Trine University named its department of chemical engineering in his honor, and in 2016 Trine named him “Patron Saint of the Faculty” in honor of his dedication to his alma mater. In 2012, the University of Texas renamed his department the John J. McKetta Jr. Department of Chemical Engineering.

In 1989 Johnny was awarded the Hoover Medal, which recognizes “great, unselfish, nontechnical services by engineers to humanity.” The citation reads, “For his accomplishments in energy conservation and environmental protection, resulting in the betterment of mankind.”

His sense of humor and work ethic touched and inspired thousands of students and colleagues. UT’s Texas Exes named John first on its 2013 list of the Top 10 Best and Most Inspiring Professors. His journey from coal miner to noted leader in chemical engineering has been the subject of hundreds of articles and interviews and a documentary film. Thousands of his former students raised more than $28 million to celebrate his contributions to their lives and to chemical engineering.

John McKetta was deeply devoted to the university and its students — even after they graduated, he phoned them each year on their birthday. To this day, students don burnt-orange t-shirts with John’s message on the back: “A student you befriend is your friend forever.”

John is survived by children Charles William (Charley) McKetta and Kreta Johnson of Moscow, Idaho; John J. (Mike) McKetta III and Sallie Martin Sharp of Austin; and R.A. (Randy) and Terry Monroe McKetta of Lakeway, Texas; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Pinky and a daughter Mary Anne both predeceased him in 2011.