Dr. Earl McCracken 1897-1966

MCCRACKEN, HAIGHT, MCCRAITH, COOPER

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 4/9/2021 at 07:11:16

4 August 1966 - The Tipton Conservative

MECHANICSVILLE - Dr. Earl C. McCracken, formerly of Mechanicsville, died June 24 in a Cheverly, Md., hospital. He was a resident of Riverdale, Md.

He was born at Mechanicsville June 27, 1897, and attended high school at Stuart, where he graduated. In 1918 he graduated from Drake University, Des Moines, with a bachelor of science degree. He then taught high school for a year and became an Iowa State University physics instructor in 1919. He earned his masters degree in 1929 at ISU.

Dr. McCracken went to Rochester, Minn. as a fellow in biophysics of the Mayo Graduate school of medicine, where he conducted graduate research studies in physiology and physics under the direction of Dr. Charles Sheard and Dr. H. E. Essex. He left there in 1934, to return to the Iowa State University, where he became assistant professor of physics. He received the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1934 from the University of Minnesota.

In 1938 Dr. McCracken became assistant professor of household engineering in Teachers College of Columbia University. In 1944 he was appointed a physicist in the bureau of human nutrition and home economics of the United States department of agriculture; from 1953 to 1957 he was a member of the home economics research branch; from 1957 until his retirement in 1963 he was with the Institute of Home Economics of the Agricultural Research Center at Beltsville, Maryland. He was the author of a volume, "Selected Physics: Topics for Home Economics Students."

While he was with the Department of Agriculture he carried out research on the operating characteristics of household equipment, refrigeration equipment for the home and measurement of human energy expended in household tasks.

Dr. McCracken was a member of the Committee on the Relationship of Electronics to Agriculture of the Department of Agriculture, and of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the American Home Economics Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Iowa Academy of Science, the Society of the Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, the Pi Mu Epsilon mathematics recognition society, the Kappa Delta Pi education honor society and the Alumni Association of the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.

Dr. McCracken was married to Mary B. Haight on Oct. 2, 1920. Mrs. Haight and two daughters Mrs. William McCraith, of Benton Harbor, Mich.; and Mrs. Carlos Cooper, of Bonner Springs, Kans., survive.