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MARS G. FONTANA
1910-1988
BY ROBERT A. RAPP
My G. FONTANA, a worlcI-renowned educator and corrosion
engineer, died February 29, 198S, at age seventy-seven. He was
one of the worId's pioneers in research establishing basic scien-
tific knowledge of the phenomenon of corrosion and its applica-
tions in engineering. In abolition to his noteworthy technical
achievements, Fontana was an outstanding administrator and
stimulating teacher.
Born in Iron Mountain, Michigan, on April 6,1910, Fontana
received a B.S. in chemical engineering (1931) and an M.S.
(1932) end Ph.D. (1935) inmetallurgicalengineering from the
University of Michigan. From 1929 to 1934 he served as a
research assistant in the university's Department of Engineer-
ing, where his work included investigations of scaling of steel at
forging temperatures, development and use of apparatus for
vacuum fusion analysis for gases in steels, high-temperature
creep of metals and alloys, and also basic work on the thermocly-
namics of steelmaking. He published four articles based on this
work.
From 1934 to 1945 Fontana worked for E. I. du Pont de
Nemours and Company, Inc. in Wilmington, Delaware, as a
metallurgical engineer and group supervisor in the Technical
Division of the Engineering Department. There he devoted
limited time to research while concentrating largely on plant
and design engineering. This included organizing work on
99
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100
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
materials of construction in various Du Pont production depart-
ments and developing materials and designs for acid service. He
also pioneered industrial uses of nylon and Teflon. Four patents
were assigned to Du Pont in connection with his corrosion work.
This early practical experience set the stage for his research,
writing, and teaching that followed during the succeeding thirty
years of professional activity as professor and chairman in the
Department of Metallurgical Engineering at The Ohio State
University (OSU). In 1945hewasnamedaprofessorofmetallur-
gical engineering at OSU, and in 1948 department chairman
and director of the Corrosion Center, the largest university
effort in corrosion research in the United States. He was named
a regents professor in 1967 and chairman emeritus in 1975.
He was known as an excellent teacher, lecturer, and research-
er, but also a considerate and efficient leader. At OSU he was
particularly effective in bringing about the building of new
laboratories, recruiting and cleveloping outstanding young fac-
ulty members, and participating in the administration of the
college and university. During his tenure, $3 million worth of
new facilities for metallurgical engineering were constructed,
and research under contract grew to $1 million a year. At OSU
he was called upon to serve on various faculty committees,
including the Faculty Advisory Committee to the president and
Board of Trustees, Faculty Council, Advisory Council of the
Engineering Experiment Station, and Executive Committee of
the College of Engineering.
Throughout his career, Fontana merged science and engi-
neering to clarify the mechanisms of corrosive attack of engi-
neering materials by aggressive environments, and to develop
and recommend inhibitors, coatings, and electrolytic and other
means to protect engineering structures. These efforts led to his
famous textbook Corrosion Engineering, published by McGraw-
Hill in 1967. The author of two hundred technical papers in
recognized journals, he also authored Corrosion: A Compilation,
published by Hollenback Press in 1957. He was exceptionally
well qualified and recognized as a consultant to industry on
corrosion problems and materials selection, and he did consult-
ing work for Duriron Company, Mallinckro~t Chemical, Com-
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MARS G. FONTANA
101
bustion Engineering, Dow Chemical, General Electric, U.S.
Steel, Republic Steel, Humble Oil, StanciarcI Oil of New Jersey
and of Ohio, Kaiser Aluminum, American Potash and Chemical
Co., the U.S. Air Force, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, and other firms and agencies of the
federal government.
Fontana was elected a member of the National Academy of
Engineering in 1967 and later served on the National Research
Council's Committee on Ocean Engineering. He served as an
honorary member of the American Society for Metals (ASM) in
1969 and was a fellow of the ASM in 1970, of the Metallurgical
Society of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and
Petroleum Engineering (AIME) in 1971, ant} of the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers in 1972. He served as president
of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in 1952,
chairman of the Corrosion Division of the Electrochemical
Society in ~ 948-1949, and chairman of the Columbus Chapter of
the ASM in 1948. He was a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda
Upsilon, Phi Eta Sigma, TotaAlpha, Alpha Sigma Mu, and faculty
adviser to Texnikoi.
The University of Michigan named him Distinguished Engi-
neering Alumnus in 1953, gave him its Sesquicentennial Award
in 1967, and awarded him an honorary doctor of engineering
degree in 1975. He received the Frank Newman Speller Awarc!
in 1956 from the National Association of Corrosion Engineers
(NACE). In 1973 the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers
gave him its Neil Armstrong Award; in 1969 the American
Society for Engineering Education presented him its award for
excellence in instruction of engineering students; in 1973 the
students in the College of Engineering at OSU awarded him the
C. E. MacQuigg Award in teaching; The Metallurgical Society of
AIME awarded him its first Outstanding Educator Award; and in
1979 ASM presented him its GoIci Mecial. He was editor of the
NACE journal Corrosion from 1962 to 1974.
In 1962-1963 Fontana was named to a six-man corrosion
exchange between the United States and the U.S.S.R., and from
1972 to 1975 served as a public member of the Technical
Pipeline Safety Standards Committee of the U.S. Department of
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Transportation. He presented the Plenary Lecture at the Second
International Congress on Corrosion in 1963 and was the Ed-
ward DeMille Campbell Lecturer of ASM in 1970.
He held eight patents including that for Alloy FA-20, a stan-
dard alloy for many corrosive services. His Alloy DC4MCu was
patented by OSU, and he invented Duriron anodes for cathodic
protection that are used to protect buildings at the Kennedy
Space Center.
Fontana and his wife Elizabeth had four children, Martha,
Mary Beth, David, and Tommy. He enjoyed a good game of golf
and bowled in the Faculty League (highest score, 279~. Active in
his community, Fontana participated in Cub Scouts, Cub Scout
baseball (he had played semiprofessional baseball), Boy Scout
fund raising, the United Appeal, and the First Congregational
Church, where he was an usher and member of the building
committee.
To his many students, colleagues, and friends, Mars G. Fon-
tana was known to be particularly kind, friendly, generous, and
tolerant. He provided a very positive contribution to the lives of
hundreds of people and to the engineeringworld in general. He
will be missed, but remembered, by those who loved, respected,
and admired Mars G. Fontana.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
metallurgical society
