Paul E. Stanley papers

Paul E. Stanley, engineer and professor, was born in Bippus, Indiana, near Huntington on November 6, 1909. He received his A.B. degree from Manchester College in 1930 and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Ohio State University in 1933 and 1937. From 1937 to 1943 Stanley was on the faculty at Wheaton College where he taught physics.

In 1943 he became an instructor in the Purdue Aeronautics Corporation, which was engaged in a civil pilot training program for the U.S. Army Air Corps. He later served as Director of Ground School at Purdue University’s Navy War Training Service (WTS) Program. He taught most of the ground school courses and in 1945 joined the newly created combined Mechanical Engineering – Aeronautics School on January 1, 1945, as an instructor. He was promoted to assistant professor on July 1, 1945. Early on in the new School of Aeronautics he taught air transportation courses. He also acted as a counselor to undergraduates and administered the undergraduate aeronautics program. In the 1950’s Stanley taught in the School’s two parallel programs, Air Transportation and Aeronautical Engineering. When the Air Transportation program was phased out in 1955, he taught fluid mechanics, stability and control of flight vehicles, aircraft control equipment, and analog and digital computer application to aircraft systems in the Aeronautical Engineering program. In 1960 he was appointed executive assistant to the head of the School and served as interim head of the School of Aeronautical and Engineering Sciences from 1963 to 1965.

Paul Stanley, along with Elmer Bruhn and Joseph Liston, was instrumental in founding the Purdue University School of Aeronautics. They consulted leaders in industry to formulate curricula and laboratories. With Bruhn as head, the School of Aeronautical Engineering held its first registration in the fall of 1945, with 239 students enrolled. Two years later, after veterans had time to return, 736 students were enrolled in the School of Aeronautical Engineering. During the period 1946-1950, Stanley acted as an assistant administrator for the School, particularly the Air Transportation Division. He later served as interim head from 1964-1965.

In the 1960s he changed his research focus to the area of biomedical engineering with the emphasis on safety of electrical instruments used in hospitals in the treatment patients. In the 1970s he developed a clinical engineering program along with Dr. Barry Feinberg and Dr. Vernon Newhouse in the School of Electrical Engineering. In 1973, the Biomedical Engineering Center was created at Purdue and Stanley acted as interim director. When Dr. Leslie Geddes became director in 1974, Stanley became assistant director.

After retiring in 1976, Stanley continued research and authoring research papers and edited a book and contributed a chapter.

He was a member of the National Fire Protection Association, was on the board of the Association for Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, and served as chairman of the Biomedical Division of the American Society for Quality Control. Locally he was known as a lay minister and guest preacher for a number of congregations.