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al
tOEL FRANKLIN MONROE
( LEVI ) LEATH E RS
1920-1987
BY RAYMOND F. BOYER WITH ASSISTANCE FROM
NUMEROUS OTHERS
jOEL F~N~IN MONROE (LEVI) LEATHERS, considered to be
among the worId's outstanding process engineers as well as
a great innovator in research, pilot plant, production, and
management, died June I, 1987, at the age of sixty-seven.
Levi Leathers spent his entire career with Dow Chemical
Company, where in 1941 he began as a second-cIass oiler
in the power house of the old Texas Division and in 1976
was named vice-president of Manufacturing and Engineer-
ing Technology, assuming worldwide responsibility for en-
suring the coordinated development and use of Dow's most
advanced manufacturing and engineering capabilities. As
he is described affectionately, Levi Leathers was the genu-
ine article, a bear of a man whose accomplishments loomed
larger than life and whose brilliant mind led to major im-
provements in Dow's manufacturing operations. As Levi
liked to say, "If it doesn't work, there is a reason why. If it
does work, there is a way to make it work better."
Born and raised in Guy's Store, Texas, Levi received his
B.S. in chemistry in 1941 from Sam Houston State Univer-
sity, Huntsville. He then joined Dow in the Power Depart-
ment of the Texas Division in Freeport, Texas, and later
that year transferred to Dow's Central Laboratory at Freeport
as a control chemist. Between 1943 and 1945 he worked in
several Texas Division laboratories as a chemist, and from
201
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
1945 to 1947 he held a variety of Texas Division technical
management positions including project leader, assistant
plant superintendent, and assistant laboratory director.
Continuing on at the Texas Division, Levi was named director
of the Organic Pilot Plant Laboratory in 1954, director of
Research and Development in 1961, and general manager
of the Texas Division in 1966.
Then, as it is said, Texas wasn't big enough to hold Levi.
He became director of operations for Dow Chemical U.S.A.
in 1968, a Dow Company vice-president in 1970, a member
of the board of directors in 1971, and executive vice-president
of Dow U.S.A. in ~ 971.
In 1978 Levi was elected to the National Academy of
Engineering for his "leadership in large-scale chemical processes
which advanced the U.S. chemical industry into a world
leadership position." He was also a member of the Ameri-
can Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemical En-
gineers, Society of Chemical Industry American Section,
and Technology Assessment Advisory Council of the Office
of Technology Assessment. In 1972 he was presented an
honorary doctor of engineering degree from Michigan
Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, and in 1977
a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Sam Houston State
University.
He served as a member of the boards of directors of
Cordis Dow Corporation of Miami, Florida, a Dow associated
company; the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company of St. Louis,
Missouri; and the Magma Power Company of Los Angeles,
California. A. L. Johnson, president of Magma, recalls Levi's
broad range of concerns for chemical engineering and power
generation. Before Levi served on the board of directors
of the power company, which was located in the Imperial
Valley of California, hot brine (with 200 parts per million
of dissolved salts) was pumped from the earth and flash
evaporated to produce steam for power. Levi was espe-
cially challenged by the attendant corrosion problems, and
Johnson considered Levi a tremendous technical asset to
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JOEL FRANKLIN MONROE (LEVI) LEATHERS 203
Magma's operations. One of their power plants is named
"The I. M. Leathers Plant."
During the period 1959 to 1977, Levi was the inventor or
co-inventor for eight U.S. process or apparatus patents assigned
to the Dow Chemical Company. He always longed for the
Texas-size challenge. When it came, he was ready. In 1973
he took on the energy crisis with his war on British thermal
units. Under his leadership, Dow technology not only sur-
vived the crisis but also emerged leaner and more competitive.
Fellow board member H. D. Doan, a grandson of H. H.
Dow and former president of Dow Chemical, knew Levi for
over thirty years and described Levi as the most dedicated
man he had ever met. He noted that we are all better off if
we believe in something bigger than we are religion or
country or home. He said, for Levi it was Dow. Levi loved
his wife, Katie, and his children. He also lover} Dow. He
had an instinctive rapport with people who put Dow above
themselves. That was a requirement and he did not think
that was very complicated.
It is Dow's strategy to be the best in commodity chemicals
and to add to that base several specialty lines. That strategy
is proclaimed at the top, but it is in reality a reflection of
Levi's leadership in process work that allowed others to
adopt it. It also was Levi and Ben Branch, retired head of
Dow International and president of Dow Chemical Company,
who pushed that process work all over the world so that
today that strategy is working. That can remain a lesson
for us today. It is always genius down below that makes
strategy possible not the other way around. And genius
does not care who gets the credit as long as the work gets
done. An c! that was Levi.
However, a retired engineer who worked closely with Levi
at the time when he was general manager of the Texas
Division remembers his outstanding characteristic as "a lasting
concern for people." Levi realized that personnel in a
large industrial organization might have personal problems
related to work, home, or individual traits, problems that
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
were counterproductive. This engineer recalled that Levi
had a special ability to sense the existence of such problems
and would encourage such an individual to talk. He always
warned the person seeking his advice that "I can do one of
three things: I can help, or I can't help, but I can certainly
sympathize."
His colleagues recall his zest for life and friends, which
often became apparent at dinner meetings, during business
trips, or at other group occasions when he eventually would
lead the group in singing, with or without piano accompa-
niment. Among his favorites were "The Yellow Rose of
Texas," "Release Me," and others of that vintage and genre.
Life was never dull with Levi around, whether ire work or
play. He was tough, but he had a heart much bigger than
his tough exterior. He did "good" in the best and most
real sense of the worst.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
dow chemical
