Herbert Bamford Langille
January 27, 1871 - February 9, 1950
Herbert Bamford Langille, Mechanical Engineering: Berkeley
Herbert Bamford Langille died suddenly on February 2, 1950. He received his early education in Tusket, Nova Scotia where he was born January 27, 1871. His secondary training was received at Hood River, Oregon, the region which in his later years he considered as his home. In 1891 when Stanford University was organized he matriculated as a member of its first freshman class. After completing his third year at Stanford he spent 10 years in industry, returning in 1904 to complete the work for his baccalaureate degree in 1905.
Practical work in various fields related to engineering occupied the time between the beginning and end of his undergraduate work. Various job titles held during this period included carpenter, electrical wireman, power plant operator, machinist and draftsman. This experience was extremely valuable to him later in the teaching of machine design.
Following graduation at Stanford, Mr. Langille held a number of positions which further prepared him for the teaching he was later to undertake. During the period 1905 to 1912 the titles of his positions included those of chief draftsman, chief engineer, surveyor, city recorder. This period of his activity culminated in service as Assistant Mechanical Engineer for the Panama Pacific International Exposition.
Mr. Langille came to the University as instructor in mechanical drawing and machine design in the spring of 1914. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in the fall of 1914 and served the university faithfully for the next 22 years, retiring in 1936 as Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus. Throughout his teaching career he was a prodigious worker, taking his obligations to the students most seriously and spending much time and effort in the tasks related to teaching. He was instrumental in promoting the activities of the student branch of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and served for a number of years as the faculty sponsor of that group.
Mr. Langille was greatly interested in the instruction of young men in the field of marine engineering, as practiced in the U. S. Navy. He spent the period 1917 to 1919 during World War I on active duty in the U. S. Naval Reserve as an instructor in this field, training the college graduate officer candidates in the operation of naval machinery. Returning to the University after the war he aided in the instruction in naval machinery and tactics during the formative years of the naval R.O.T.C. unit on the campus. This instructional load was carried as an addition to his already heavy schedule in Mechanical Engineering, a token of his keen interest in the instruction of young men. Summers for a number of years found him present on the naval R.O.T.C. cruises, aiding in the shipboard instruction in naval machinery.
Mr. Langille's interest in teaching did not cease upon retirement. He not only kept in touch with affairs on the campus but also promoted the development of graduates through his support of the junior members program in the San Francisco section of the ASME. He also remained active in the Pacific Southwest Section of the American Society for Engineering Education, a section which he helped organize in 1932. During World War II Mr. Langille was not content to play the part of a retired teacher but sought and obtained appointment as an instruction officer at Mare Island Navy Yard. Later in the war he held a part-time assignment supervising War Training courses in the field of engineering under the jurisdiction of the University.
To summarize in a few words Mr. Langille's contribution to the University: he possessed an unswerving loyalty to the University and to the teaching profession, a loyalty that found ample expression in his work with students in the classroom, in student meetings, on inspection trips arranged by him and in the meetings of the several professional engineering societies in which he was active. Unfailing optimism characterized all of his activities and enabled him to exert a marked influence on those whom he served.
He is survived by his widow, Teresa M. Langille.
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