CHALMERS COLIN NORWOOD 
1853-1922 
Professor Chalmers Colin Norwood was born in the state of 
Alabama in 1853, of Scotch parentage. His early boyhood was 
spent in that state and in North Carolina, where he attended 
Davison College, receiving his A.B. degree from this institution in 
1878, at the age of twenty-five; later he attended Johns Hopkins 
University as a graduate student, where he sat under the in- 
struction of Simon Newcomb and other eminent scientists of those 
times, receiving his A. M. in 1882. He was professor of mathe- 
matics in the Maryland Agricultural college from 1882 until 
1886, whereupon he returned to his Alma Mater, to become pro- 
fessor of physics and astronomy, which position he held for two 
years, 1886-1888. Professor Norwood then became an examiner 
in the Patent office at Washington, D. C., occupying this post 
from 1888 until 1893, at which time he was compelled to seek 
a western location to benefit the health of Mrs. Norwood. He re- 
moved to the west and occupied the following positions in turn, 
all of an educational and scientific nature: professor of mathe- 
matics and physics, Agricultural College of Utah, 1895-1897 ; sup- 
erintendent of public schools, Evanston, Wyoming, 1897-1904; 
professor of physics and applied mathematics, Westminster Col- 
lege, 1904-1918; graduate student in physics, Columbia University, 
summer session, 1917 ; service with Hercules Powder Company, 
Ballistic engineering, 1918-1919; and professor of physics, Central 
College, Missouri, 1919-1920. 
Professor Norwood entered work in the field of science in Iowa 
in September, 1920, when he assumed the duties of the chair of 
physics at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant, where, by his 
quiet unassuming manner and wonderful spirit of cooperation and 
helpfulness, he quickly endeared himself to both faculty and stu- 
dent body. Although the senior member of the faculty from 
the point of age, his mind remained open and he was quick in 
his appreciation and as keen in the assimilation of the newest dis- 
coveries and theories of science, as were his pupils for those new 
