Helping Future Generations Find Their Calling in Chemistry
High school chemistry “came alive” for Bryan Cashion ’70 thanks to a pilot project with Harvey Mudd College.
Cashion took a course created by the late chemistry professor J. Arthur Campbell, who directed the NSF-sponsored Chemical Education Material Study program aimed at transforming high school chemistry instruction. The course—and its films in which Campbell appeared—led to Cashion attending Mudd.
Cashion recalls, “Mudd was not a place where you could coast through College.” But he enjoyed the challenge as well as outstanding chemistry professors, including Campbell, Phil Myhre and Mits Kubota. He says Graydon Bell’s astronomy course spurred a lifelong interest in our galaxy.
Still, there was time for fun. He remembers students filling a classmate’s room with Styrofoam, placing a VW Bug in an empty HMC swimming pool and efforts to steal the Caltech cannon. Before earning his PhD in environmental engineering at Clemson University, he worked for the National Park Service overseeing labs and testing water quality.
“Mudd and Clemson made it possible for me to have a comfortable life and to give back,” says Cashion. During his 30-year career with Exxon Mobil and in retirement, he has utilized the matching gift program.
“When I learned about the tax-wise strategies of giving with stock and through qualified charitable distributions from my IRA, I began using them, too,” Cashion adds. Through a deferred gift, he’s leaving a significant portion of his IRA to benefit future generations of students.
In the meantime, the Coloradan and his significant other, Sara, volunteer at the Montrose Botanical Gardens, and he enjoys astronomy with the Black Canyon Astronomical Society.
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