When Professor O.R. Sweeney retired from Iowa State College in 1947, his “boys,” as his students were nicknamed, wanted to raise money for a portrait to show him standing with chalk in one hand, just like they remembered him.

The students gave Sweeney the portrait. Sweeney died in 1958, and a few years later his wife became ill and moved to Marion, Ohio to live with their eldest daughter Elizabeth Sweeney Jester. The portrait has been sitting in Jester’s library ever since, but today it comes back to Iowa State.

The portrait will be unveiled today at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2061 of Sweeney Hall. Sweeney Jester will be on hand to unveil the portrait.

O.R. Sweeney was the first head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Sweeney Hall was named for him in 1964 after a new addition was added to the original building. Another addition to Sweeney Hall was built three years ago.

George Burnet, a professor of chemical engineering, was once one of Sweeney’s boys. He described the portrait as a “very personable and very accurate portrayal of Dr. Sweeney.”

Burnet said Sweeney was a professor who had a great deal of imagination and foresight.

“When he came here in 1920 he recognized there was a lot of waste material on the typical Iowa farm,” he said. Sweeney then developed uses for corn stalks; most notably he invented Maisewood, a wood-like substance made from corn stalks which are left after harvest.

The technology used to make Maisewood, Burnet said, was used for the creation of Celotex and Masonite.

“The technology was developed with corn stalks, although the material is associated with lumber industry.”

Marcia Martens Pierson, of engineering communications, said before the portrait, a retirement gift, was painted, students asked him what pose he wanted.

“He told them he wanted it at the chalkboard, which captures him exactly how the students remember him,” she said.