Frederic Auten Combs Perrine
Frederic Auten Combs Perrine (1862-1908)
1909 Obituary [1]
FREDERIC AUTEN COMBS PERRINE died at Plainfield, New Jersey, on October 20, 1908.
He was born on August 25, 1862, and was educated at the Freehold Institute, New Jersey, and at Princeton University, where he graduated D.Sc. in 1885, and M.A. in 1886. His education was on very broad lines, and having taken up the study of science, he continued to extend his knowledge by habitual reading almost to the time of his death.
He specialised in electrical engineering, and on leaving college was some years with the United States Electric Lighting Company, of New York, and with John A. Roebling's Sons' Company, and for a short period with the Germania Electric Company, of Boston.
On the winding up of this company, he gave up engineering practice, and began his more successful work of teaching, being appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, California. Before taking up this work he acted as a judge, and as a member of several committees, at the World's Fair, Chicago. Dr. Perrine in organising the department at Stanford University endeavoured as far as possible to combine the mathematical and physical theory of electricity with its practical applications to engineering in the workshops and elsewhere. His success was largely due to personal contact with his students, and to informal discussions with them supplementary to the ordinary lectures. During the latter part of his connection with the University he was also chief engineer of the Standard Electric Company, of California.
In 1904 he resigned both positions to become president, and general manager of the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company, of Pittsburg, Mass., and in 1904 he resigned this post to take up private practice, which he continued to the time of his death. He held positions for a short period as editor of two technical papers, and belonged to many important societies.
His connection with this Institution, as Member, dates from 1903.