Otto
Charles von Schlichten died unexpectedly on October
4, 1950. Born in Cincinnati, July 19,1886, he had been closely associated with
the University of Cincinnati, as a student and teacher, for more than forty years.
Professor von Schlichten completed his undergraduate
work at Cincinnati in 1911 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He became a
member of Sigma Xi while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin in
1913 and later he was the first president of Sigma Xi at the University of
Cincinnati. Throughout his subsequent life, he showed great interest in the
goals of Sigma Xi, and through his counseling and teaching, he did much to help
both his colleagues and students to attain these goals. 
Professor von Schlichten's contributions to the advancement of science
were made as a teacher and a consultant. As a teacher, he organized the
Five-year Cooperative Geological Engineering Program in which many of us were
trained. Von Schlichten served the city and local
industry as consultant in connection with problems of foundation stability,
landslides and other phases of engineering geology. Many of his colleagues on
the faculty found that their perplexing problems were made easier by "Von's" generous sharing of his broad scientific
understanding. To students and colleagues he was known as an exceptionally able
teacher, possessing a broad and accurate knowledge of many branches of science,
which he was able to convey simply and clearly.
In addition to his association with the University of Cincinnati, von Schlichten instructed at Lehigh and was a member of the
Missouri Bureau of Mines. His interest in mineralogy and gems took him to Ann
Arbor almost every summer to work with the renowned mineralogical faculty of
the University of Michigan.
Besides Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, he was also a member of the Ohio Academy
of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a
Fellow of the Mineralogical Society.