Content area
Full text
Frank Crossley's way was to let his science speak for him. His impeccable intellect was girded by a quiet, intense resolve to reveal truth and logic, even in the face of social conventions that would challenge both. His professional accomplishments in the corporate and academic worlds were impressive and impactful by any measure. Considering he achieved many of his formative milestones at a time when people were routinely refused service in restaurants and denied entrance to buildings because of their skin color, the trajectory of his life is nothing short of astonishing.
"He believed in preparing to be ready to make his dreams come true. This way, when the opportunities came, he could take full advantage because of his complete toolbox," commented Desne Crossley, Frank Crossley's daughter. "The opportunities came along because he was brilliant, prepared, credentialed, and easy to be around."
"I believe, though, that his most important quality was selfconfidence," Desne Crossley continued. "He knew his value and kept putting one foot in front of the other. He didn't allow setbacks to overwhelm him."
Frank Crossley agreed. "Selfconfidence is necessary in order to accept challenges," he said. "And, accepting challenges is necessary to achieving anything."
A Groundbreaking "Experiment"
Frank Crossley started forging that self-confidence as a youth on the South Side of Chicago during the Great Depression. While life could be difficult, Crossley was determined to attend college, influenced by his mother, a bookkeeper, and her two brothers and sister who had earned degrees. He secured a job in a local factory as a high school student-working long hours to apply decorative surfaces onto metal strips-and deposited nearly every dime of his paycheck into a savings account for college. He excelled in math, but his career path became clear when Lloyd A. Hall, an African American chemist from Griffith Laboratories, gave a talk to his science class. Crossley noted in a 2009 interview that he remembered thinking, "If this man could buck racism at the turn of the century, I can do it, too."1
Upon graduating high school in 1942, Crossley enrolled as a chemical engineering major at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He was partly influenced in his decision by the commute to IIT-attendance at other schools would have required him...