Sam Tanenbaum
Fellow Engineering Faculty Member
Clive Dym was a good friend and a truly unique faculty member. He was always fun to talk to–especially when he was expressing a strong and possibly unpopular opinion. He was a wonderful fit for Harvey Mudd because he believed design is an intellectually valid discipline and the key distinction between engineers and scientists. This key role for design is now widely accepted by engineering departments across the country, but just a few decades ago it was viewed as a radical idea embraced by Harvey Mudd and just a few other schools.
Clive’s list of publications is truly amazing. He wrote easily and was fun to work with on a publication, but he also set very high standards for his written work. He was the author of 13 textbooks, and seven other HMC faculty members served as co-authors on four of them. Nearly as remarkable was his organization and leadership of seven Mudd Design Workshops that were held every other summer from 1997 until 2011. Each workshop presentation was carefully collected, edited and brought to publication by Clive. Throughout his career Clive also maintained an active research program that led to 93 refereed journal articles and a comparable number of reports, conference presentations, and other publications.
I was the dean of faculty when Clive was hired. His salary at University of Massachusetts was more than we could offer, but he knew that Harvey Mudd’s commitment to engineering design was a perfect match for him. So he accepted our salary offer, and I think he never regretted his decision to come to Claremont. In all, he was a wonderfully productive faculty member, and we were fortunate to have him as a colleague.
Jacqueline El-Sayed
Mudd Campus Community member
Clive held such an integral, special place at Mudd. I particularly remember Clive’s insights at the Sustainable Design Conference conversations during my time as Mudd’s ACE Fellow ’09. He will be greatly missed.
Art Benjamin
Colleague
Clive always treated me with kindness and respect. I shall miss him considerably.
Alex Cohan '05
Student
Clive was an amazing professor.
Barry Olsan
Colleague and friend
Clive’s accomplishments are truly amazing. There’s no doubt that the engineers that took his design courses were able to apply what they learned to hundreds of successful Engineering Clinic Projects. It was a great pleasure knowing Clive these past 17 years.