Remembering Richard C. Seagrave’s legacy in chemical engineering education, university leadership

Chemical engineering faculty member. Department chair. Distinguished professor. Emeritus professor. Interim provost. Interim president.

Richard C. Seagrave served Iowa State University in all these ways and more.

Seagrave, who passed away in August 2025, leaves a legacy that continues to shape the success of the university — and generations of Iowa State students.

Born in Rhode Island, Seagrave earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Rhode Island. He then made what was seen at the time as an unlikely journey to Iowa State University to further his education.

“[Seagrave] was urged to pursue graduate school by one of his Rhode Island professors. Another instructor, who held a high opinion of Iowa State after spending a summer on campus, suggested the young ninth-generation Easterner take a serious look at the land-grant university in the heart of the Midwest,” the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering’s centennial anniversary book reports.

The idea of heading west appealed to Seagrave, who said he saw it as an adventure.

After earning an M.S. in chemical engineering at Iowa State in 1959 and a Ph.D. in 1961, Seagrave was hired as an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Connecticut, but after only a year he chose to head west to do post-doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology, and he joined their faculty as an assistant professor in 1963.

Iowa State faculty members kept in touch, and Seagrave returned to Ames in 1966 when he was hired as an associate professor.

Seagrave was promoted to full professor in 1971 and named Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering in 1982. From 1974-1980, he was professor-in-charge of Iowa State’s biomedical engineering program.

Almost half of his 28 doctoral graduates majored in biomedical engineering. In 1971, Seagrave published Biomedical Applications of Heat and Mass Transfer, a textbook that developed from his biomedical engineering teaching.

In 1983, Seagrave became chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, holding the position until 1990. Subsequently, he was tapped to take on university-wide leadership roles. The first such assignment was as director of the Iowa State University Computation Center from 1991-1992.

After serving a brief stint as interim department chair in 1997, Seagrave was appointed interim provost of Iowa State University and served in that role for much of 1999. After a short return to the role of professor, he was named interim president of Iowa State in August 2000 and held that position until June 2001, bridging the gap between Presidents Martin Jischke and Gregory Geoffroy.

Throughout these appointments, Seagrave continued to be a dedicated mentor to chemical engineering students, and he would meet with them whether it was in his Sweeney office or as provost or president in Beardshear Hall.

Seagrave’s devotion to teaching, mentoring, and student success was a hallmark of his time at Iowa State.

He also served as chair of the university’s Honors Program for undergraduate and graduate students from 1990-1995, and student participation in the program grew by 57 percent during that period.

“There is no greater reward for a faculty member than to help his or her students discover and develop their talents, see them achieve excellence and then watch and help them pass it on, by example and leadership, to their peers,” Seagrave said at the conclusion of his time as Honors Program chair.

Seagrave held several positions at the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), which oversees accreditation of engineering curriculums worldwide.

He served as an ABET chair in 1996-97 and ABET president in 2005-2006. He remained a member of the ABET Executive Committee after retiring from Iowa State, and he traveled the world as part of accreditation teams for chemical engineering programs in such countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, ensuring the high quality of engineering graduates entering the workforce.

Seagrave was also a devoted long-distance runner, and along with several of his Iowa State chemical engineering faculty colleagues, dominated for a decade the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Antwerpen Award, which is a competition among faculty to determine which school could record the fastest time to run a mile each by four of its chemical engineering faculty members. Among other long-distance events, Seagrave participated in four Boston Marathons and finished third in his age group in 1987.

The Richard C. Seagrave Professorship in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering continues Seagrave’s legacy by supporting the research and educational work being done by department faculty.

Seagrave’s other career accomplishments include, among many others:

• Named a fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1994 (also served as vice chair of the organization’s Career and Operating Council)
• Iowa State University Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award (for mentoring of graduate students), 1995
• Iowa State University Presidential Service Award, 1998
• Iowa State University Thomas B. Thielen Award (for student success),1998
• Twelve-time recipient of the Outstanding Teaching Award in chemical engineering
• Three-time recipient of honors from the Iowa State University Honors Program (for mentoring students).