Since his death in July, 1937, Captain Paul J. Dashiell has been lauded for his achievements in football, both as player and a coach, and also for his work as an official and a member of the Football Rules Committee, but no mention has been made of his participation in other sports, of his scholarly training, or of his forty years’ service teaching chemistry at the Naval Academy. It is not so generally known, especially among the younger generation, that he was a baseball star also in his college days, a gymnast, a wrestler, and a tennis player. Most of those who saw him officiating at a football game did not know that the game was being handled by a man who held a Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University, who was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and who had earned these distinctions by his graduate work in chemistry under Dr. Ira Remsen.
The graduates of the Naval Academy accepted “Skinny Paul” as part of the institution without thinking how long he had been there or what he had done for chemistry. The accomplishments of so versatile a man are worthy of recording.
The material for this article has been gathered from members and friends of the Dashiell family, from classmates in college, from old catalogues and other records at St. John’s College, Annapolis, and at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and from Naval Academy records. The writer has also drawn on his own experiences with impressions of Captain Dashiell, based on sixteen years of working with him at the Naval Academy.
Paul Joseph Dashiell was born on the campus of St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, July 16, 1867, the son of Rev. Julius M. and Mary T. Dashiell. His father was an Episcopal minister and held the chair of Professor of Latin and Greek from 1866 to 1881 at St. John’s College. Paul was the fourth of five children, four sons and one daughter. The family resided in the western side of the double brick house on the Campus next to St. John’s Street.
Paul Dashiell was raised on the Campus and entered the Preparatory School of St. John’s at the early age of eleven, continuing through the junior year of the college, when he left to enter Johns Hopkins University in the fall of 1884 for the purpose of taking up the study of chemistry. According to a classmate at St. John’s, Paul was not an outstanding student there, mainly because he was so young (he was only seventeen when he entered Hopkins), but he soon found himself and was able to earn scholarships by the high grade of his work at Hopkins. He was graduated at Hopkins in June, 1887, with the A.B. degree and returned on a fellowship to continue his study of chemistry as a graduate student under the guidance of Dr. Ira Remsen, Hopkins’ noted teacher of chemistry. He pursued his study of chemistry for the next two years, majoring in organic chemistry, then left for the year 1889-90 to substitute for a professor at Lehigh University, who was on leave of absence. He returned to Hopkins in the fall of 1890 to complete the requirements for his doctorate and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in June, 1891. His dissertation was on the subject “The Reaction of Paradiazoorthotoluenesulphonic Acid with Ethyl Alcohol under Various Conditions of Dilution and Pressure.” During his last graduate year he was one of Dr. Remsen’s assistants in the laboratory. Dashiell’s work at Hopkins had been of such high order that he was elected a foundation member of the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter thereon its establishment in 1895, although he had been out of the University for four years.
After completing his graduate work Dr. Dashiell, a title which he seldom used however, returned to Lehigh as instructor of organic chemistry and taught there for another year. On the resignation of Dr. C. R Sanger as Professor of Chemistry at the Naval Academy in 1892, Instructor Dashiell secured this position and returned to his native city to enter upon his new duties September 12, 1892.
It was natural for Paul Dashiell to turn to the Naval Academy when the opening came, for besides having been raised as a boy where he could watch the naval cadets at drill and sports, he had the examples of his two older brothers and his sister to follow in becoming connected with the Navy. His oldest brother was graduated in the class of 1881, his sister married a classmate of this brother, and the next oldest brother was enrolled as a cadet engineer, but resigned in the middle of his first class year.
After serving as a civilian professor for fourteen years, Dashiell was appointed a lieutenant in the Corps of Mathematics on June 27, 1906, and rose to the rank of captain in 1929.
On August 1, 1931, Captain Dashiell was retired for age, but retained on active duty until forced to go on the inactive list by the provisions of the Economy Act of Congress on July 1, 1932. After his retirement he was allowed to retain his quarters in the Officers’ Club for two years longer, but finally moved to Carvel Hall. For several years before he retired, he was troubled with arthritis and spent many hours in “Misery Hall” undergoing treatment, but to no avail. He entered the Naval Hospital at Annapolis in April; 1937, for eye trouble, but was not confined there until the last of June. He died suddenly of a heart attack July 6, 1937. From September 12, 1892 to July 1, 1932, a period of forty years lacking two and one-half months, Captain Dashiel was primarily a teacher of chemistry to cadets and midshipmen (the naval cadets became known as midshipmen in 1902). During this long service 13,000 young men came under his inspiring influence to receive instruction in chemistry and its applications to the Navy. He was always very patient with those trying to learn chemistry and eager to help them to a better understanding of the subject m which he was so interested himself. His kindly feeling for their welfare awakened an affection for him, which was testified to by his host of friends throughout the naval service. He was popularly called “Skinny Paul” because he was associated with the “Skinny Department,” as the Department of Physics and Chemistry was then called, and not because of any physical characteristics. He is still described by one who knew him as an athlete as having “a splendid figure, beautifully proportioned and well muscled.”
Although handicapped in the scope of the course in chemistry by the limitation in the time assigned to its study, he made the most of what was available by supplementing the textbook with lectures on explosives, paints, boiler feed water, batteries, service appliances, and nitrogen fixation. To help midshipmen to a better understanding of the problems in chemistry, he issued a pamphlet giving typical problems with their solutions. He was fortunate to have been a student under Dr. Remsen and showed the benefits of this training in the breadth of his understanding of the fundamentals of chemistry, in the accuracy of his work, and in the orderliness of his records. He was very exact in all his calculations. His admiration for his former teacher was so great that he used Remsen’s textbooks in chemistry for 30 years and reluctantly discarded them when they became out of date from lack of revision. Even after his retirement in 1932, Captain Dashiell came to the department every day and retained his interest in the teaching of chemistry, giving a few lectures, and taking a section midshipmen occasionally in the absence of an instructor. To keep himself posted on the latest in the field of chemistry he was a member of the American Chemical Society for 24 years from 1910 to 1934.
During this 40 years of teaching there are outstanding incidents that many officers still remember. For the first 15 years Professor Dashiell had to give a lecture every Friday night to the youngsters during the term that chemistry was studied. He tried to relieve the drudgery the classroom work by enlivening these lectures with interesting demonstrations. One of the most popular demonstrations was the effect of laughing gas on animals, illustrate which he had several mice as victims. When a mouse failed to revive after treatment with the gas, the laugh was on the professor. At other times the Professor got even with the class, when a mouse, on coming to, made a beeline for the youngsters, frightening them in a manner highly unbecoming to a body of men training for leadership in times of anger. This behavior of the mice and of the youngsters is vouched for by the laboratorian assisting at these lectures. In the demonstration of some of the properties of explosives the class was always struck with awe at seeing the professor light a stick of smokeless powder and calmly hold it in his hand as it burned. The vigorous action of concentrated sulphuric acid on sugar, producing flame and violent spattering of black residue, showed the dangers in chemical reactions of some common substances. The action of litmus as an indicator in neutralization reactions always produced a laugh in the class as the color of the solution was changed red and blue on successive addition of acid and base.
As professor of chemistry at the Naval Academy, Dashiell was called upon to do much extra analytical work testing materials purchased to determine if they met specifications. His notebooks reveal the quantity and variety of these tests, conducted up to the time of the opening of the Experiment Station across the Severn in 1908. All paints, oils, and coal were regularly sampled and tested before acceptance, and occasionally cloth for uniforms, cement, magnesia pipe coverings, and soaps. From the frequency of the tests of painting materials one would suspect that the painters had been busy all the time, using barrels of zinc white, white lead, red lead, turpentine, linseed oil, shellac, alcohol, drier, varnishes, and lard oil. Lubricating oils were also frequently tested and a large number of samples of drinking water analyzed. That this analytical work was not done under the most favorable conditions in the old Chemical Laboratory, which stood just in front of Mahan Hall, is indicated by two entries in his notebooks. The record of one test of zinc white is marked “Leak in roof spoiled determination.” A test of the drying quality of a varnish was carried on at a “Room temperature 59o F.”
Captain Dashiell delighted to tell of some of the results of his analyses. On one occasion he rejected a shipment of coal for the gas works because it was too high in sulphur content. The Naval Academy had its own gas plant for many years, the gas being used mainly for lighting the buildings before the advent of electricity for this purpose. As the storage capacity of the gas holder was limited and the supply of coal in the bunkers very low, the coal had to be used. A few days later Dashiell’s rejection of this shipment of coal was justified when the dancers at a hop held in the old fort, which at that time was used for a dance hall as well as a gymnasium, were forced to leave the building on account of the choking fumes of sulphur dioxide, produced by burning the gas made from this coal containing too much sulphur.
On the establishment of the Postgraduate School at Annapolis in 1912, Professor Dashiell was called on to give instruction in chemistry to the student officers. This involved a large amount of extra work in the preparation of lectures on service applications of chemistry to the Navy, in teaching qualitative analysis, and in directing special investigations of the more advanced student officers, sometimes keeping him in the laboratory until nine o’clock in the evening. The work of the Postgraduate School was interrupted by the entrance of the United States into the World War, but was resumed in 1919. On the opening of its own chemical laboratory a few years later in the present Postgraduate School building and the addition of an instructor of chemistry to its faculty, Professor Dashiell was relieved of this additional duty. During the two years that the Postgraduate School was closed, Professor Dashiell was called on to teach alternating currents and radio to the first class of midshipmen, subjects which he had never studied or taught before. With his characteristic thoroughness he settled down to the job of mastering these subjects.
No biographical sketch of Paul Dashiell would be complete without some reference to his ability as an all-round athlete and to his work in football as coach, official, and member of the Rules Committee, for it is in these last capacities that he is best remembered and achieved his greatest fame. He was not only a star athlete in many sports but also a leader in whatever he took up both in college days and in later life. This athletic prowess is vouched for by records in the old Yearbooks in the Johns Hopkins Library and by statements of his contemporaries who knew him when he was in his prime.
No record can be found of the first participation of Paul Dashiell in intercollegiate sports, but a classmate at St John’s, who played on some of the early teams with him, asserts that Dashiell played on teams there for two years before leaving to enter Hopkins. He was, however, too young and undeveloped to outshine the much older men on the St John’s teams at that time.
The earliest Yearbook on file in the Library of Johns Hopkins University, “The Debutante” published in 1889, lists Dashiell in the following activities- Member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity* vice-president of the Athletic Association, captain and halfback on the football team, captain and pitcher on the baseball team, and a gymnast. In 1888 he made the record of 357 feet for throwing the baseball. Playing in the full schedule of nine baseball games in 1888, Dashiell & credited with a batting average of .425 and a fielding average of .992, each average being the highest of any player on the team. Of course these averages cannot be compared with those of players nowadays* because of differences in style of play and in equipment. In this same Yearbook is a write-up of a gymnastic exhibition, in which is found this statement: “One of the best acts of the evening was the tumbling- Dashiell made some beautiful long tumbles.” Later issues of the Yearbooks show Dashiell as pitcher in 1889, as halfback in 1890, and as captain and second baseman in 1891, and a member of the Athletic Committee.
Dashiell played on the football and baseball teams at Lehigh for the two years that he was an instructor there. Those who saw the football games between Navy and Lehigh at that time still remember his remarkable playing. With these two years at Lehigh, with six years at Hopkins (three as an undergraduate and three more as a graduate student), and with two years at St. John’s, Dashiell had a total of ten years participation in college athletics in the days when there were no eligibility rules. In addition to being a noted football and baseball player and a gymnast, Dashiell was reputed to be a strong wrestler and an exceptionally good tennis player. His unity in tennis was sufficient to earn for him the honor of being captain and nonplaying member of the American International Tennis Team for the Davis Cup in 1905. The exceptionally long period of intercollegiate competition in a variety of sports alone tells the story of Dashiell’s ability as an all-round athlete. Furthermore he was always a leader in whatever he participated.
After taking up his duties at the Naval Academy, Professor Dashiell gave up playing on athletic teams, but maintained his interest in sports, coaching some of the Navy football teams and officiating at football games. The silver punch bowl and salver, presented to him in 1897 by the naval cadets and now on exhibition in the Trophy Room of the Gymnasium, was one tangible expression of appreciation of his services in coaching. Dashiell is credited with helping to establish the present athletic system at the Naval Academy. He began officiating at football games in 1894 and for a period of about ten years handled some of the biggest games in the country, such as Harvard-Yale, Yale-Princeton, Pennsylvania-Cornell. He was urged to take up this work by Walter Camp of Yale, who saw the need impartial and aggressive officials to improve the sportmanship in intercollegiate contests. Dashiell was the leader in founding the Football Rules Committee in 1896 and served on it for many years.
In his sports, as in his teaching, Paul Dashiell showed the same earnestness and thoroughness and inspired others by his own enthusiasm. He was a hard worker in his student days, but he found time for athletics and for social affairs. He maintained this balance of activities throughout his life. He was a very sociable man, much sought after in his student days at Hopkins as well as in later life. His popularity was due to his ability to enliven the conversation with stories and incidents from his own wide experiences and to the interest he took in the welfare of others. Being a bachelor increased the number of his invitations, especially for dinner parties. He was very generous by nature, helping others in his family, and friends as well, to get started in the world, contributing to worthy causes, and giving presents lavishly.
As a student Paul Dashiell showed that he had great mental ability, for he was able to carry on his graduate work at Hopkins and at the same time to participate in several branches of sports and to have numerous social engagements. He was a good student and a hard worker. Dr. Charles H. Herty, the distinguished southern chemist, who was Dashiell’s roommate for three years at Hopkins, writes: “Paul was considered a brilliant student. He had one of the most remarkable powers of concentration I have ever seen in a student. I had confidence that he would prove one of the great chemists of the country.” Dr. Ira Remsen, his old teacher at Hopkins, writing to the Board of Examiners for the Corps of Mathematics of the Navy on behalf of his former pupil, stated in a letter dated January 26, 1906: “He was recognized as a good, faithful student and as a man of fine character.” Some of his friends urged Professor Dashiell to resign from the Navy and to give his whole attention to industrial chemistry, but he loved the Navy and the navy life too much to leave the Naval Academy.