caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality fields birth_date image article_title name alma_mater
george hubbard clapp 31 march 1949 sewickley , pennsylvania allegheny , pennsylvania usa pioneer in the aluminum industry , numismatics , conchology 14 december 1858 georgehubbardclapp.jpg george hubbard clapp
 george hubbard clapp university of pittsburgh
george hubbard clapp

george hubbard clapp -lrb- 1858 -- 1949 -rrb- was an american pioneer in the aluminum industry and also a numismatist .
he was born on december 14 in allegheny city , pennsylvania , now a part of pittsburgh , the son of delia dennig hubbard and dewitt clinton clapp , an iron company executive .
he graduated from the western university of pennsylvania , today 's university of pittsburgh , in 1877 .
he married anne love in 1882 and the couple had two children .
clapp took an engineering position at park brothers ' black diamond steel works .
there , along with captain alfred e. hunt , he established the pittsburgh testing laboratory 's chemistry department .
hunt formed a company in 1888 to exploit the charles martin hall patents for making aluminum by electrolysis .
clapp was treasurer and secretary of the fledgling company .
he resigned as treasurer in 1892 and was replaced by andrew w. mellon .
the company became later known as the aluminium company of america .
while hall is generally credited with the invention the aluminum process , clapp raised the initial venture capital to make the process commercially viable .
the mellon interests supplied the company 's working capital .
as clapp 's wealth grew , he pursued his avocational interests in conchology and numismatics .
he had begun collecting coins as a boy in the 1870s by sifting through the coins of a toll bridge across the allegheny river .
he later became a founder of the western pennsylvania numismatic society .
his grandfather encouraged him to start collecting shells .
over the years he assembled more than 100,000 mollusk shells , which he later donated to the carnegie museums of pittsburgh .
in the 1930s he donated his coin collections to both the american numismatic society and the carnegie .
beginning in 1907 until his death , clapp was president of pitt 's board of trustees .
he was a driving force in moving the school from its north side location to the oakland district .
he also was a trustee of the carnegie institute of technology , today 's carnegie mellon university and a member of the american chemical society .
he died at age 90 on march 31 , 1949 at his home in sewickley , pennsylvania .
clapp hall , an academic building on the pitt campus , is named in his honor .
