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OCR for page 305
JOE B. ROSENBAUM
1912-1987
BY MILTON E. WADSWORTH
SHOE B. ROSENBAUM, a long-term pioneer in the nation's
metallurgical industry and a key figure in the industrial
development of the domestic uranium industry, died of
cancer September 12, 1987, at the age of seventy-five. Dur-
ing the previous thirteen years, Joe Rosenbaum had been
an active consulting engineer in the metallurgical industry,
in addition to serving both as an adjunct professor for the
Department of Metallurgical Engineering ant! as a member
of the Advisory Council of the College of Mines and Miner-
als Industries for the University of Utah, Salt Lake City,
Utah.
Joe Rosenbaum was born March I, 1912, in Denver,
Colorado, the second of four children of Zelich and Rachel
Greenblatt Rosenbaum. Joe was the first of their children
to be born in America. He developed a hunger for read-
ing at an early age. Because his elementary school had so
few books, he would play "hooky" from school and go to
the public library to read. His interest in engineering and
technical matters was already being established. He at-
tended Manual Training High School in Denver where he
excelled in math and science and participated in football,
track, and boxing. He graduated from high school in 1929.
In the fall of 1929 he enrolled at the Colorado School of
Mines with a scholarship and an ambition to become a
305
OCR for page 306
306
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
metallurgist. In 1932 he had to leave school for a year to
work before returning to finish his degree in metallurgical
engineering in 1934 Grin the, plinths of the rl-^r-~eim
O - ---it ---I ~ Rae ~~~ ~~r~
~ . .
Several months alter graduating, Joe obtained a job with
the Public Works Administration in Denver. Although the
job was engineering, it was hardly metallurgy. A major
compensation, however, was that Greta Fredrickson also
worker! in the office. Over the course of about eighteen
months, they fell in love and were married on New Year's
EveinI935.
In 1937 Joe decided he'd stayed away from the mineral
business long enough. He began the operation of a mica
mine in the hills west of Denver using a converted 1920
LaSalle limousine to haul ore. He soon tired of this
noneconomic operation and obtained a job as a flotation
helper for the Walker Mining Company at Walkermine,
California, now a ghost town about fifty miles from Reno.
By the time he left Walkermine in 1941, Joe had worked
his way up through ball mill operator and shift boss to
company metallurgist. He had finally achieved stature in
his chosen field of metallurgy; he never again left the field,
though for a few years his role was more administrative
than technical.
His next stop was Boulder City, Nevada, where he joined
the U.S. Bureau of Mines as a junior metallurgist. His
tenure in Boulder City, however, was interrupted by the
war. He entered the Army Corps of Engineers as a first
lieutenant in May 1942 and in 1943 was sent to serve in the
South Pacific. In 1946 he was released from active duty
with the rank of major, and resumes! his research career in
Boulder City. There he worked on a variety of projects,
the most important of which was the processing of manga-
nese ore and winning of chromium from domestic, low-
grade ores.
In 1~952 he was transferred to the Salt Lake City Metal-
lurgy Research Center where he remained for ten very pro-
ductive years. The work he directed in uranium and vana-
OCR for page 307
JOE B. ROSENBAUM
307
dium extraction from complex ores earned him interna-
tional recognition. He developed successful procedures
for both acid and alkaline leaching of uranium and subse-
quent purification techniques that were incorporated in
uranium processing plants. This did much to produce a
uniform uranium product from widely dissimilar ores. His
well-known papers on solvent extraction of uranium were
published during this time. In addition he contributes! to
the literature in beryllium, rhenium, and thorium recovery,
and became expert in solvent extraction and several appli-
cations of electrometallurgy.
He declined job offers in Washington, D.C. several times
before accepting the position as chief metallurgist of the
U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1962. In 1963 he was given the
dual assignment of director of metallurgy research and acting
assistant director of mineral research. He held the latter
position while a permanent director was sought, and was
commended by members of congress for the lucid and soft-
spoken answers given while presenting the two separate
budgets for the three successive years 196~1965. His leadership
in welding four dissimilar research groups, of different clis-
ciplines and with different objectives, into an integrated
group and other similar accomplishments was well recognized.
Although he enjoyed many aspects of this position, he found
that he preferred to be closer to actual research. When
the position became vacant in 1967, he was appointed research
director of the Salt Lake City Metallurgy Center and stepped
down in Washington, D.C.
His excellent organizational and leadership skills enabled
him to administer his duties as research director while
permitting him time to get involved with the technical details
of several projects until his retirement in 1974. By 1970 he
had developed impressive skills in such areas as ion exchange
processing of gold and uranium and extractive processing
of titanium and aluminum. During this period, he also
worked on sulfur recovery from smelter stack gases.
Joe Rosenbaum received many honors during his career.
OCR for page 308
308
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Until his death, he was adjunct professor of metallurgy and
member of the College of Mines and Mineral Inclustries
Advisory Council at the University of Utah. He was elected
a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, a distinguished member of the Society of Mining
Engineers, a member of the American Society for Metals,
and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
His many awards include the Distinguished Achievement
Award from the Colorado School of Mines, a Presidential
Citation for Efficiency in Research Management, the Distin-
guished Service Award from the U.S. Department of the
Interior, and the James Douglas Gold Medal for distinguished
achievement in nonferrous metallurgy from the American
Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers
(AIME). He was a Henry Krumb Lecturer for AIME, and
authored or coauthored over sixty publications.
Joe and Greta had three children Karen, Richard, and
John. Karen is a teacher of English and creative writing at
Ohione College in Fremont, California. Richard is a pediatri-
cian and is the founder of Babymed International in Denver,
Colorado. John is a research engineer at Chevron Research
and Technology Company in Richmond, California. In
addition, foe and Greta had three grancIdaughters and three
grandsons.
In addition to his imposing technical and administrative
skills, Joe was a warm, loving person, and his gentle, but
firm, manner endeared him to his friends, family, and co-
workers, all of whom miss this hard-working and honest
gentleman.
OCR for page 309
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
salt lake
