Seeley G. Mudd

Seeley G. Mudd
Seeley G. Mudd
Born	Seeley Greenleaf Mudd; April 18, 1895; Denver, Colorado, U.S.
Died	March 10, 1968 (aged 72)
Education	Columbia University (BA, BS); Harvard Medical School (MD)
Occupation(s)	physician, professor, philanthropist
Parent(s)	Seeley W. Mudd; Della Mullock Mudd
Relatives	Harvey Seeley Mudd (brother); Henry T. Mudd (nephew); Caryll Mudd Sprague (niece); Norman F. Sprague, Jr. (nephew-in-law); Victoria Nebeker Coberly (niece-in-law)

Seeley Greenleaf Mudd, M.D. (April 18, 1895 – March 10, 1968) was an American physician, professor, and major philanthropist to academic institutions.

Early life

Mudd was born in Denver, Colorado in 1895, and was the son of noted mining engineer Seeley W. Mudd and Della Mullock Mudd. His brother, Harvey Seeley Mudd, was a miner, businessman, and philanthropist. He was eight when his family moved to Los Angeles, California. He attended Stanford University for two years before transferring to Columbia University, where he received a B.A in 1917 and a B.S. degree in mining engineering.^[1]^[2] He later attended Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D. degree in 1924.

Career

Mudd practiced cardiology in Los Angeles, where he contributed briefly with Linus Pauling,^[3] before joining the faculty at the California Institute of Technology, where he did work on cancer research. He was later professor and dean at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Legacy

During his lifetime, Mudd contributed more than $10 million to private colleges and universities.^{[citation needed]} Via his will, he created the Seeley G. Mudd Foundation to continue the work "that educational excellence be supported in the form of grants for the construction of buildings for teaching, learning, and research".

Many academic institutions have buildings named in honor of Mudd:

Albion College: Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center
Amherst College: The Seeley G. Mudd Building
Caltech: The Seeley G. Mudd Building of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences ("South Mudd")
Carleton College: Seeley G. Mudd Hall of Science, which houses the chemistry and geology departments
Cate School: Seeley G. Mudd Math Classroom Building and Seeley G. Mudd Science Building
Chadwick School: Seeley Mudd Science Building
Claremont School of Theology: Seeley G. Mudd Theater
Colby College: Seeley G. Mudd Science Building
Cornell University: Mudd Hall, the center for Neurobiology and Behavior
Denison University: Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center, addition to William Howard Doane Library
University of Denver: Seeley G. Mudd Science building
Duke University Medical Center: Seeley G. Mudd building
Harvard Medical School: Seeley G. Mudd building
Harvard-Westlake School: Seeley G. Mudd Library (the library for the school's Upper Campus)
Howard University: College of Medicine's pre-clinical science facility
Johns Hopkins University: Seeley G. Mudd Science building
Lawrence University: Seeley G. Mudd Library
Lehigh University: Seeley G. Mudd Building of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Seeley G. Mudd Building
Northwestern University: Seeley G. Mudd Library for Science and Engineering
Oberlin College: Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center
Pacific School of Religion: Seeley G. Mudd building
Pitzer College: Seeley G. Mudd Library (now part of the Honnold/Mudd Library)
Polytechnic School: Seeley G. Mudd Science building
Pomona College: Seeley G. Mudd Science Library
Princeton University: The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Rice University: Seeley G. Mudd Computer Science Laboratory
University of Southern California: The psychology and chemistry buildings; the medical research building on the health sciences campus
Stanford University: Seeley G. Mudd Chemistry Building
Vassar College: Seeley G. Mudd Chemistry Building, built in 1984^[4]
Washington University in St. Louis: Seeley G. Mudd House residence hall, as well as the former Seeley G. Mudd Hall for the School of Law (an award-winning building for its use of concrete that ultimately proved unpopular with the University community, demolished 25 years after its 1972 dedication)^[5]
The Webb Schools: Seeley G. Mudd Auditorium, remodeled and renamed in 2013.
Westridge School: Seeley G. Mudd Science Building
Whitworth University: Seeley G. Mudd Chapel
Willamette University: Seeley G. Mudd Building
Yale University: Seeley G. Mudd Library

It is a common misconception that the Engineering building at Columbia University was also named for Seeley G. Mudd. It is, in fact, named for his father, Seeley Wintersmith Mudd.

References

^ "Columbia College Today". Internet Archive. p. 366. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
^ McCaughey, Robert (2014-06-03). A Lever Long Enough: A History of Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science Since 1864. Columbia University Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-231-53752-0.
^ Pauling, Linus. "Letter from Linus Pauling to Seeley G. Mudd." NIH.gov. November 6, 1945. https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/mm/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101584639X58-doc.
^ Facilities - Chemistry, Vassar web page. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
^ [1], Washington University Law Review article. Retrieved on 2016-12-03.

External links

Short bio and picture of Dr. Seeley G. Mudd
Biography of Seeley G. Mudd from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library website at Princeton University
Whitworth University Campus Map

[1] "Columbia College Today". Internet Archive. p. 366. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

[2] McCaughey, Robert (2014-06-03). A Lever Long Enough: A History of Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Science Since 1864. Columbia University Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-231-53752-0.

[3] Pauling, Linus. "Letter from Linus Pauling to Seeley G. Mudd." NIH.gov. November 6, 1945. https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/mm/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101584639X58-doc.

[4] Facilities - Chemistry, Vassar web page. Retrieved 2011-01-12.

[5] [1], Washington University Law Review article. Retrieved on 2016-12-03.

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