Tsu Ming Han: Man of Two Different Worlds

By Dr. Russell M. Magnaghi and James F. Shefchik

Over the centuries the Upper Peninsula has grown and developed due to many immigrants who arrived. Some of their stories are known but most have been lost to time. One of these stories belongs to Tsu-Ming Han, a Chinese immigrant, a geologist and senior research laboratory scientist at Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company (now Cliffs Natural Resources). He came to the Upper Peninsula in the 1950s and was instrumental in the development of lower grade iron ore refinement processes and pelletization, which had a direct impact on the region and its people. In his spare time as a geologist, he identified an ancient fossil, Grypania Spiralis. Additionally important to the story was his family: Joy his wife and his children; Dennis, Timothy, and Lisa. This is another major effort of Northern Michigan University’s Center for Upper Peninsula Studies to shed new light and ideas on the history of the U.P.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365706431

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Tsu Ming Han: Man of Two Different Worlds

TSU-MING HAN:  MAN OF TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS

Russell M. Magnaghi

And

James F. Shefchik

Tsu-Ming Han: Man of Two Different Worlds

First Edition eBook

ISBN:  978-1-365-70643-1

Northern Michigan University’s Center for Upper Peninsula Studies and 906 Heritage, Marquette Michigan 49855

Copyright © 2016 Russell M. Magnaghi and James F. Shefchik

All Rights Reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without express permission of the authors.

Front cover image of Grypania Spiralis by flickr user James St. John.

Back cover of Grypania S. courtesy of Wikemedia Commons.

Distributed by Lulu.com

All images courtesy of Han Family and NMU Archives unless otherwise stated.

Dedicated to

His family, his coworkers at Cleveland-Cliffs Research Laboratory, and his many colleagues in geology.

Acknowledgements

The beginnings of any biography or historical study are based on research, analysis of those data, creation of questions to be answered, the selection of relevant documents, and finally the narrative in your hands. The pursuit of Tsu-Ming Han’s biography fell into that pattern. However, the Han story had one caveat to deal with – Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company’s (now Cliffs Natural Resources) concern for industrial espionage. Tsu-Ming was doing highly technical work that resulted in millions of dollars of profit for the company, and the administrators were not prone to publicize Han and his work during his lifetime. As a result more people became aware of Han in his obituary in the Mining Journal in 2005. If you were a geologist you would have an entry to his work in scientific journals. Despite the caveat we are fortunate to have materials dealing with the man and his work.

A breakthrough came when Dr. Terry Reynolds, emeritus professor of history at Michigan Technological University, told Dr. Russell Magnaghi in the summer of 2010 of an oral interview of Han, which exists in the Central Upper Peninsula and University Archives, Northern Michigan University. This interview was conducted by Jenna Alderton in December 1993 as part of the Red Dust Oral History Project many years earlier. It was a rare and welcomed discovery and was published by Alderton as A Slow Start with a Promising Ending, Red Dust (1994), 1-3.

This was followed by interviews conducted with his wife, Joy and colleague and good friend at CCI, Tom Waggoner on May 4, 2010. Another interview conducted at the Michigan Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee on October 4, 2013 brought together Magnaghi, Han’s family – Joy, Dennis, Timothy – and a number of former coworkers to discuss the man and his role in memoriam.

Two final pieces added to the Han narrative. Antti Saarivirta’s March 2015 interview reflected his working alongside Han. The last important addition to this collection of interviews is Dr. Bruce Runnegar’s insightful observations of September 13, 2016. These are connected with Runnegar and Han’s publication dealing with a well-preserved specimen of Grypania. In the Spring 1981 issue of Cliffs News, an article by Don Ryan focused on Tsu-Ming’s 1980 return trip to China.

The Central Upper Peninsula and University Archives located at Northern Michigan University are the depository of the Tsu-Ming Han Papers which include all of the interviews and published materials: Young Chinese Geologist on CCI Job in Ishpeming, The Mining Journal 07-01-1952; Top Research Post Given Han by CCI, The Mining Journal 06-16-1967; Han Honored, The Mining Journal 01-11-2005; Obituary, Tsu-Ming Han, The Mining Journal 02-05-2005; Jacqueline Perry, CCI Scientist Remembered as Mining Pioneer, The Mining Journal 02-05-2005; Tsu-Ming Han, 1924-2005: The Prolific Researcher, Cliffs Connections 1:1 (Summer 2005): 6; and Tsu-Ming Han, Life Journal of a Chinese Country Boy, (undated, unpublished autobiography, Ishpeming, Michigan).

Finally we are all very fortunate to have a detailed bibliography of Tsu-Ming Han’s publications provided by Dr. Richard D. Hagni, professor of geology at the University of Missouri at Rolla. Without his assistance such a detailed and rather complete bibliography would have been all but impossible to create. There is a reason why institutional memory is important.

Introduction

The biographical study of Tsu-Ming Han is colorful, tragic, and as he reflected, a successful one, as he was caught up in the events of twentieth-century China. His story begins in the culturally rich province of Henan in central China. Here his traditional family followed the farming route taken by hundreds of generations of his family and why shouldn’t this be different? However this was not to be the case as external forces and events interjected themselves on this quiet domain and family of Han. There was chaos and violence connected to the 1930s when war lords imposed their will only to be followed by the Japanese invasion of China and the imposition of their will and force onto the people of Henan. Again violence and heartache over-whelmed Tsu-Ming and his family. His father, Xi-Pan Han’s love for education and the worlds it could open became a new force for Tsu-Ming to deal with. However the Japanese invasion not only unleashed barbarism, but exacerbated the struggle between the Chinese Communists and Nationalists which would gradually enter the Han fortunes and misfortunes. Kidnapping, bloody executions, and the uncertainty for the future played havoc with Tsu-Ming and his family. Where would all of this lead?

Since life in China had been difficult as local and world affairs enter the individual’s life, the Han family sought to send Tsu-Ming to America. In the process he was one step ahead of the Communist takeover of the country, and made it out. He was then faced with the life of a new immigrant who was unfamiliar with the language and customs of the United States. His educational training in China and the support of his father provided him with the mental and emotional resources to weather the new experience. He arrived to attend graduate school and furthered his studies in geology with interest and love. If his experiences in China were at times bleak, in the United States he met individuals like Dr. John L. Rich, his academic advisor, Burt Boyum, Assistant Chief Geologist at CCI, and others who provided him with encouragement and help. He went to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to work a summer job with Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, which blossomed into a permanent position in the research laboratory. Although the English language would be a continuous obstacle, which he would overcome more than once, he could pursue his love of geological engineering research. He presented numerous research papers on iron geology some of which were published variously by respected geological associations and societies. This research and the team that Tsu-Ming led had a direct impact on the economy of the Upper Peninsula and also had positively affected the lives of thousands of Yoopers, by providing jobs and benefits. Pelletization would allow the mines of the Marquette Iron Range to continue to prosper into the twentieth-first century.

He also met and married Joy who had a similar exit from China. They moved to Ishpeming where they became part of life in the Upper Peninsula, far from the turmoil and hostility in China. They raised three children - Dennis, Timothy, and Lisa - guided by family tradition and Chinese concepts and principles. Further bolstering their lives was their love of the Baptist faith.

As happens with many people they are made strong through adversity and struggle. This was certainly true of Tsu-Ming whose professional life even in retirement was devoted to research and study and constantly pushing past the borders of the geological unknown.

The objective of this study is to present the life and times of this little known Chinese immigrant who had such an important impact not only on his family and faith but the larger community of the central Upper Peninsula and the fortunes of the Cleveland-Cliffs