Professor John M. Ordway (1823-1909) was born in Amesbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA, He became a noted chemist and engineer. He graduated with honours from Dartmouth in the Class of 1844. He was for years Dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later he was at the head of industrial chemistry at Tulane University. He died in 1909 at his summer home in Saugus while on break from the university.