During his thirty eight years of dedicated services to asphalt technology, Lawrence R. Kleinschmidt’s greatest contributions were made in the field of asphalt roofing.
After spending his early career in the Chemistry Division of the United States National Bureau of Standards, Mr. Kleinschmidt turned to research with bituminous materials for roofing.
In that time, the absence of college instruction on bituminous technology made Mr. Kleinschmidt’s ability to teach younger associates a vital link in the perpetuation of existing knowledge and stimulation of further research in the field. In appreciation of his efforts, research fellowships were begun under the sponsorship of the Asphalt Industry Roofing Bureau.
He was particularly renowned for developing new laboratory techniques, notably the separation of asphalts into constituent components and a method of preparing extremely thin uniform films of asphalt for analytical purposes. Both added considerable knowledge to the composition of asphalt.
Mr. Kleinschmidt served for twenty years as Vice Chairman of the Technical Committee on Bituminous Roofing, Federal Specifications Board and was solely responsible for the test methods in the Federal Specifications for bituminous roofing.
Elected: 1968
