Randolph Norris Shreve (March 9, 1885 – February 17, 1975) was a chemical engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, educator and collector.
[3] After graduating from Ferguson High School in Ferguson, Missouri, he was unable to afford college, and instead began work as a laboratory boy at the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis, where he learned chemistry from Charles Luedeking and William Lamar.
[1] In 1923 Shreve became the chief stockholder and president of Ammonite Company,[3] which was then based at the Nixon Nitration Works in what is now Edison, New Jersey.
[3] Shreve joined the Purdue University College of Engineering faculty in 1930, becoming a full professor the next year.
[1] He has been recognized as "the main proponent of teaching industrial chemistry in U.S. chemical engineering departments in the second quarter of the 20th century.
[1] He wrote several books, most notably Chemical Process Industries, a major text now in its fifth edition.