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Stange, Charles H.

Published onJul 30, 2021
Stange, Charles H.
·

(May 21, 1880 – April 26, 1936)

Quick Facts

Charles Stange was Dean of the Division of Veterinary Medicine for thirty years.


Source: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=iowastate_veterinarian

Charles Henry Stange was born on May 21, 1880, near Massillon in Cedar County, Iowa.1 He graduated from Lowden High School in Lowden, Iowa, in 1896, after which he worked on his father’s farm. When he decided to attend Iowa State College, he gave up his share of the family farm.2 He received his DVM from Iowa State College (University) in 1907 with the highest marks in both his veterinary class and in the college.3

His career started with the USDA’s Bureau of Animal Industry in New Mexico in 1907, but he resigned to pursue post-graduate work in pathology and bacteriology at the University of Chicago.4 He then returned to Iowa State College (University) as an assistant professor (1907-1908), became acting Dean of the Division of Veterinary Medicine (1908-1909), and, at only 28 years of age, became the third Dean of the Division of Veterinary Medicine (1909-1936). He would go on to serve in that capacity for 27 years.

When Stange returned to Iowa State as a member of the faculty, the Division of Veterinary Medicine faced an uncertain future. Facilities and equipment for clinics and teaching became inadequate, and funding for faculty hires was insufficient.5 Despite Dean J. H. McNeil’s efforts, pleas to the state legislature for funding for the Division came up with no results. McNeil resigned out of frustration with the situation on September 30, 1980 and took a position in surgery at Ohio State Veterinary College.6 Iowa State College President Albert Storms served as acting dean for a time, with Stange making purchases and carrying out correspondence under his direction.7 In 1909, Stange was selected as the next dean of the Division of Veterinary Medicine. He accepted after being assured that the Division would receive the same considerations as other divisions of the college.8

During his tenure as Dean, Stange worked to make the Division of Veterinary Medicine the best in the nation. He separated the Division into five departments (the Departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Surgery, and Medicine)9 and later established two new departments (the Department of Veterinary Hygiene and the Department of Obstetrics) as well as the Veterinary Medical Research Institute.10 The Veterinary Quadrangle was constructed in 1912. The Division was one of the first veterinary schools to offer four full years of veterinary courses and under Dean Stange, it became one of the first to set entrance requirements for prospective students.11 Stange placed great value on the education of veterinarians, believing that the advancement of the profession depended upon the improvement of education standards in veterinary colleges.12 This focus on veterinary education paid off. A January, 1931 article in the Alumnus states, “The Division of Veterinary medicine [sic], although [sic] well organized at the time Dr. Stange was made dean, has enjoyed its greatest development during his deanship. It is now recognized as one of the leading Schools of Veterinary Medicine in this country.”13

He was a member of Phi Zeta, Sigma Xi, the United States Livestock Sanitary Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association (of which he was president in 192414), the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, the Association of State and National Research Workers in Animal Diseases, and the Iowa Academy of Science. Stange was a delegate to the Eleventh International Veterinary Congress (1930), and the United States Bureau of Education selected him to survey the veterinary schools in the country (1928). He came up with the idea to create student chapters of the AVMA, and during his deanship, chapters were organized in every veterinary school in the United States and in Canada.15 The Iowa State Student Chapter of the AVMA was established in 1927.16

Stange died on April 26, 1936, and is interred in the Iowa State University Cemetery. He was much beloved at Iowa State, and classes were dismissed for his funeral on April 29, 1936 at 2 p.m.17 He wrote in 1915 that the “development of Veterinary Division is the account of my life.”18 Of course his life was more than that, but the statement displays the level of devotion he had to the veterinary school. In 1938, his dream of building a new, state-of-the-art clinic was realized with the completion of Stange Memorial Clinic.19 The building was located north of the Veterinary Quadrangle (now Lagomarcino Hall) at the corner of what is now Stange Road and Pammel Drive.

Stange married Harriet Newell Beyer on October 20, 1909.20 Together they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Jean, and one son who died in infancy, Robert.21

Selected Sources

  1. “Personal History for Alumni Records” (form, Iowa State University, 2015). Box 1, Folder 3, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  2. Russ Daly, “Charles Henry Stange: A Biographic Sketch,” Iowa State University Veterinarian 51, no. 2 (1989): 69, accessed November 16, 2016, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3316&context=iowastate_veterinarian.

  3. Ibid.

  4. “Charles Henry Stange,” Iowa State University Veterinarian 1, no. 3 (1939): 71, accessed November 16, 2016, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=iowastate_veterinarian

  5. Russ Daly, “Charles Henry Stange: A Biographic Sketch,” Iowa State University Veterinarian 51, no. 2 (1989): 69, accessed November 16, 2016, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3316&context=iowastate_veterinarian.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid.

  9. “Dean Charles H. Stange Dies of Heart Attack,” [unlabeled newspaper clipping], Apr. 26, 1936. Box 1, Folder 4, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  10. Bob Bliss, “He Gave Up Sixty Acres,” Iowa State Daily Student (Ames, IA), Nov. 14, 1935.

  11. “History of the AVMA 1924,” Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association 139 [no. not listed] (1961): 1354 [typescript of article]. Box 1, Folder 3, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  12. “Charles Henry Stange,” Iowa State University Veterinarian 1, no. 3 (1939): 71, accessed November 16, 2016, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=iowastate_veterinarian

  13. The Iowa State Alumnus, January 1931. Box 1, Folder 3, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  14. Edgar Rubey Harlan, A Narrative History of the People of Iowa (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931), 321.

  15. Russ Daly, “Charles Henry Stange: A Biographic Sketch,” Iowa State University Veterinarian 51, no. 2 (1989): 71, accessed November 16, 2016, http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3316&context=iowastate_veterinarian.

  16. Ibid.

  17. “Iowa State College Pauses for Funeral of Veterinary Dean,” Cedar Rapids Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), Apr. 30, 1936.

  18. “Personal History for Alumni Records” (form, Iowa State University, 2015). Box 1, Folder 3, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  19. “Stange Memorial Clinic Is the Realization of Dream,” [unlabeled newspaper clipping, undated]. Box 1, Folder 4, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  20. “Personal History for Alumni Records” (form, Iowa State University, 2015). Box 1, Folder 3, Charles H. Stange Papers, RS 14/1/13, Special Collections and University Archives Department, Iowa State University Library.

  21. Edgar Rubey Harlan, A Narrative History of the People of Iowa (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1931), 322.

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