Phi Delta Theta Museum
Oswald Ryan was an original member of the Civil Aeronautics Board when it was created in 1938 and its chairman for one year in 1953. Mr. Ryan served on the board, originally called the Civil Aeronautics Authority, under Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower.
He was a prominent figure in civil aviation for more than 20 years. On the 15th anniversary of the board, created under the Civil Aeronautics Act of August 1938, Mr. Ryan was the only member of the original board still serving.
Joel Stebbins was an American astronomer who pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor’s degree in astronomy in 1899. He then went on to acquire his PhD from the Lick Observatory where he worked.
He became an instructor of astronomy at the University of Illinois and director of the University of Illinois Observatory from 1903 to 1922. During this time he performed innovative work with the selenium cell and received the Draper Medal of the National Academy, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1950, and among other honors.
In 1922 he became director of the Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he remained until 1948. Stebbins developed photoelectric photometry to the point where it succeeded photography as the photometric standard. After 1948, Stebbins actively continued his research at Lick Observatory until his final retirement in 1958.
Brother Thurlow was a pioneer in early flight attempts. He is most known for his around-the-world flight with Howard Hughes, in which he served as co-pilot and navigator. Thurlow would pass away in 1944 due to a plane accident.
Edward Curtis Wells was senior vice president and served on the board of directors of Boeing Company. He helped to design the Boeing 747 and the B-17 Flying Fortress. He was known as the “elder statesman of aviation.”
Wells joined Boeing Company’s engineering staff in 1931 and was named Boeing’s chief engineer in 1943. He received the following honors: the Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1980), the Fawcett Aviation Award (1944), and the Lawrence Sperry Award from the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (1942). Ed Wells was a member of the Willamette University Board of Trustees from 1955 until his death in 1986.
Jacob Ammen was a college professor, civil engineer, and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Within a week after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Ammen rejoined the Federal army, serving as a captain in the newly raised 12th Ohio Infantry. He was soon commissioned as colonel of the 24th Ohio Infantry. After training at Camp Chase, Ammen’s regiment was sent in late July to serve in western Virginia, seeing their first combat at the Battle of Cheat Mountain.
Shipped to the Western Theater, Ammen led a brigade in the Army of the Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth. Ammen was promoted to brigadier general on July 16, 1862. In August, Ammen assumed the division command vacated by William “Bull” Nelson, who had been given a new command and sent to defend Richmond, Kentucky.
When his health deteriorated, Ammen then performed administrative duty for nearly a year, commanding Camp Douglas in Illinois in early 1863, as well as other Federal garrisons. In late 1863, he returned to the field and commanded the Fourth Division of the XXIII Corps. In September 1864, his 800-man force blocked the vital Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at Bull’s Gap, Tennessee, during Stephen G. Burbridge’s Saltville raid. Shortly before the end of the war, he resigned in January 1865 and returned home.
John Henry Balch was a United States Naval Reserve officer and a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in World War I.
Prior to the actions in which he was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor, Balch was involved in the Battle of Belleau Wood where he was wounded. On October 5, 1918, he showed exceptional bravery by establishing an aid station under intense fire. Acting as a Pharmacist’s Mate, he was credited with carrying wounded Marines to safety and thereby saving their lives.
On August 19, 1919, Balch received an honorable discharge as a Pharmacist’s Mate First Class. One-month later he was presented the Medal of Honor by Rear Admiral F. B. Bassett at the YMCA in Chicago, Illinois. In September 1942, Balch rejoined the Navy as a lieutenant and served stateside as well as Australia and the Philippines before eventually retiring on June 1, 1950 from the Naval Reserve with the rank of commander and one of the most decorated sailors in US Navy history.
John Charles Black was a Democratic U.S. Congressman and received the Medal of Honor for his actions as a Union Army lieutenant colonel and regimental commander at the Battle of Prairie Grove during the American Civil War.
On April 14, 1861, Black (along with his brother, William P. Black) entered the Union Army as a private in the 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment on April 14, 1861. He became sergeant major on April 25, 1861.
After three months of service, the brothers were mustered out of the volunteers and organized Company “K” of the 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. John Black became major of the regiment on September 5, 1861. He was wounded in the right arm at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 7, 1862. In July 12, 1862, John Black was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and became commander of the 37th Illinois Infantry. Black led his regiment against a fortified Confederate position during the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas on December 7, 1862. The unit suffered heavy casualties and was eventually forced to retreat. Black himself was seriously wounded. An 1896 review of numerous actions during the war resulted in John Black being awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Prairie Grove. Black’s brother William also received the medal, making them the first of five pairs of brothers to both receive the Medal of Honor as of 2005.
On December 31, 1862, Black was promoted to colonel of the 37th Illinois Infantry Regiment. He was given temporary command of Brigade 1, Division 2, XIII Corps, Department of the Gulf, between November 11, 1863 and February 11, 1864, of Brigade 3, Division 2, Reserve Corps of the Department of the Gulf between February 3, 1865 and February 18, 1865. and of Brigade 3 Division 2, XIII Corps, Department of the Gulf, between February 18, 1865 and March 5, 1865.
Black resigned his commission in the volunteer service on August 15, 1865. On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Black for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from April 9, 1865, for gallant services in the assault on Fort Blakeley, Alabama on that date, and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on March 12, 1866.
William Perkins Black was a lawyer and veteran of the American Civil War. He received America’s highest military decoration – the Medal of Honor – for his actions at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in 1862.
He was the brother of John C. Black, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, who was also a Medal of Honor recipient. The Black brothers are one of only five pairs of brothers to have received the Medal of Honor.
In 1867, together with Thomas Dent, Black founded the law firm of Dent & Black. As a lawyer, Black was best known for having served as defense counsel to the people charged with inciting the Haymarket Riot of 1886.
Henry Van Ness Boynton was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War and a recipient of America’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Missionary Ridge.
From July 1861 until September 1864, Boynton served as a commissioned officer in the 35th Ohio Infantry. He was elected as the regiment’s first major, but quickly rose up the ranks to become the commanding officer of the regiment and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He led the 35th in the Battle of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, where he earned the Medal of Honor for his actions on November 25, 1863.
After the war he resumed civilian life. He married Helen Augusta Mason in 1871 and became a newspaper correspondent in Washington, D.C. Boynton also became the chairman of the committee that oversaw the development of the Chattanooga National Military Park.
Returning to duty in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, Boynton was promoted to brigadier general.
William Montague Browne was a prominent politician and newsman. During the American Civil War, he served as acting Secretary of State for the Confederacy in 1862 and as a general in the Confederate States Army.
In 1861 Browne, known as Constitution Browne by then, had become a well-connected proponet of secession and moved to Athens, Georgia after that. A favorite of both the just elected Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Secretary of State Robert Toombs he was appointed Assistand Secretary of State. On several occasions in 1861 and 62 Browne acted as interim Secretary. Living in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Eliza Jane Beket, he had two permanent houseguests. One was Howell Cobb, a former Secretary of the Treasury and an old and close friend from Washington, who now was the President of Provisional Confederate Congress. The other was his younger brother, Colonel Thomas R.R. Cobb.
Browne resigned in March 1862 and was assigned as military aide-de-camp to President Davis, with the rank of a Colonel of cavalry. Beside his main duty on the staff he also was assigned to command a battalion of local defense cavalry. On April 5, 1864 Davis appointed Browne as Commandant of Conscription in Georgia, where Governor Joseph E. Brown consistently hindered the Confederate war efforts. Browne was a natural choise as Georgia resident who had inspected and reported about the conscription in Georgia before.
In late 1864 Browne, while still enforcing conscription, was detached to commanded a small brigade of reserves during the Savannah Campaign. In December Browne was promoted to temporary Brigadier General, ranking from November 11. He resumed his conscription duty in January 1865. In February his promotion was not confirmed by congress and he reverted to colonel. Despite this he later was excluded from amnesty on grounds of being both a civil officeholder and a military officer ranking higher than colonel. He was paroled on May 8, and pardoned either in late 1865 or 66.