This collection consists primarily of Instructors Semester Reports, both for individual instructors and professors at Central Michigan University (CMU) and for the departments. The reports, which are dittoed forms, give the name of the instructor, term, year, and the number of A, B, C, D, and E grades given to the students in each course, as well as the total grades for each course. These numbers and grades were statistically compared to those received at other colleges and universities colleges that were accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACS). Professors and departments whose grades deviated from national statistics were invited to meetings with CMU President Charles L. Anspach to discuss the situation. Pres. Anspach then sent letters documenting the points and issues raised in these conversations to then Dean of Faculty Richtmeyer for further research, discussion, and evaluation. The purpose of these reports and the correspondence and discussions they generated was to guarantee that CMU would be accredited each time the NCACS evaluated it.
Richtmeyer is personally documented by his obituary, April 8, 1975 (copy) and portrait photographs (copies from the CMU Photograph Faculty files), 1966 and undated, as well as two relevant pages from the CMU Chippewa yearbooks for 1927 and 1969 (copies). Reprints of three mathematics articles he wrote are also included in this collection. A copy of the book he co-wrote with Judson Foust, Business mathematics (1959) is separately cataloged in the Clarke.
Biography:
Cleon C. Richtmeyer earned an A.M. from Albion College, did graduate study at Peabody and in Chicago, and eventually earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He was a Central Michigan University (CMU) professor in the Mathematics Department from 1924 through the 1968/1969 school year, and became Acting Head of the Mathematics Department in 1933. In 1947, Richtmeyer became Director of Instruction, a position he held until 1956, when he became the Dean of Faculty. He became the first Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences in 1959, the year the school was established. Richtmeyer retired from that position during the 1968/1969 school year, after a 45-year academic and administrative career at CMU.
On April 7, 1975, Dean Richtmeyer died at Central Michigan Community Hospital in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He was later buried in Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Dean Richtmeyer was survived by his wife, Marianne, two stepsons, John Wagner and Richard; seven grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. The Cleon C. Richtmeyer Scholarship Fund was established in his memory to help CMU students majoring in mathematics. (This information is from his obituary, a copy of which is in the collection, correspondence in the collection, and CMU Yearbooks.)
