Cline Black, an industrial and chemical engineer for Shell Oil for 34 years, died July 6, 2013. He was 97.

Black received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering (1939) and a master’s degree in chemistry (1941) from the University of Utah. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton in 1943, studying under Professor Hugh Stott Taylor (dean of the graduate school from 1945 to 1958). Black was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project.

After Princeton, he accepted an industrial-engineering position in war-related work with Shell Oil Co. in San Francisco. Later, he became a chemical engineer for Shell Development Co., the research arm of Shell Oil. Shell Development was dissolved in 1972, and Black was transferred to Houston, Shell’s headquarters city. He retired from Shell in 1977 and joined Simulation Sciences, a consulting group, for nine years.

As a chemical engineer, Black made meaningful contributions in the field of phase equilibria and methods of hydrocarbon separation. Responsible for six patents, he published several papers. An active Mormon, he retired to Provo, Utah.

Black was predeceased in 2004 by Flora, his wife of 63 years. He is survived by three children; 11 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.

 

Graduate Class of 1943