Richard S. McCaffery
1874-1969
Professor of Mining & Metallurgy
McCaffery was one of the first members of UW Credit Union's Board of Directors.
McCaffery was born in New York City on June 2, 1874. He earned an E.M. (Engineer of Mines) degree from the Department of Mineralogy and Metallurgy at Columbia University in 1896. After graduating, McCaffery began practical field experience as an assayer and chemist for Establecimento Mineral in Peru. In 1900, he was hired as the superintendent for the Santa Fe Gold and Copper Mining Company in New Mexico. He later worked in Utah for the Salt Lake Copper Company and the Tintic Smelting Company.
McCaffery's career in education began in 1909 as a Professor of Mining and Metallurgy at the University of Idaho. In 1914, he was hired as a Professor of Mining and Metallurgy by the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin. A year later, he was named chair of his department and served as chair until his retirement in 1941. McCaffery's colleagues recalled that, "His greatest achievement was the development of the young student; his love and interest in them was boundless; he lives with them in his classes; he made it a practice to have them into his home; and he knew them so intimately he called them by their first names. To the student, on the other hand, he was affectionately known as 'Mac.' His kindly and sympathetic nature lives in the recollections of his students and associates who profited from his friendly advice. It has been said by one of his former pupils that he had the rare ability and the rare gift to make the most complicated and difficult problems appear simple and easily understood."
His work contributed greatly to industry through his research into the viscosity and the constitution of blast furnace slags. It was reported that his inventions of processes for separating sulfur from iron ore, producing steel without manganese and of a new lining for Bessemer converters, revolutionized the steel industry during the 1920s.
In his 27 years at the University of Wisconsin, McCaffery mentored generations of engineers and made important discoveries that benefited the steel industry. Through his extension work, he helped industrial engineers complete research in company labs while earning masters degrees. His career was a sterling example of the Wisconsin Idea in action.