F.H.T. RHODES

FHT Rhodes died on February 3, 2020. He was 93. FHT Rhodes was the 9th Cornell University President, from 1977-1995, in its 150 plus year history. FHT Rhodes was President of Cornell University when I was accepted for admission in to the graduate chemistry program at Cornell University in early 1990. Rhodes has written several learned books in the area of "Earth Science" and "Natural History". I have read parts of one of Rhodes' 400 plus page books on the history of life on Earth...but it was written at a very high level of naturalism that was not readily accessible to me as a chemist. In FHT Rhodes tenure as President of Cornell University he moved to create the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), on the campus of Cornell University, and the Rhodes Theory Center, that raised Cornell University's status to a top 20 in the World research university. He also initiated a billion dollar capital campaign to create a billion dollar plus Cornell University endowment. This billion dollar capital campaign was successfully executed and completed in Rhodes time in the Office of the Presidency at Cornell. I never have met Rhodes personally...but he may have spoken to me indirectly during the last month he was alive. The words I received in this indirect way were very frank and very supportive of me as one of his alumni.