Conrad Louis Benoni Shuddemagen mathematical and physics lecture notebooks

Conrad L.B. Shudeman, physicist and philosopher, was born Conrad Louis Benoni Shuddemagen on September 5, 1879 in Black Jack Springs, Fayette County, Texas, to German immigrants Joannes Alexander Schuddemagen (1852-1942)* and Anna Wilhelmine Franke (1857-1944). In 1928, Shuddemagen shortened his name to Shudeman “for business convenience.” The oldest of nine children, Shudeman attended school in Frieberg and Gonzales, Texas. Excelling academically, Shudeman left high school after the tenth grade and took the entrance exam at the University of Texas in the fall of 1899, earning his SB in 1902 and SM in 1904. Shudeman entered Harvard University to study physics on a Thayer Scholarship and a Whiting Fellowship in 1905. At the end of his first year at Harvard, Shudeman was awarded the Bowdoin Prize; the oldest prize offered at Harvard designed to recognize essays of originality and high literary merit. In 1908, he received the John Tyndall Fellowship. Shudeman completed his PhD in 1908; his dissertation was entitled: The Demagnetizing Factors for Cylindrical Iron Rods. II. A Study of Residual Charge in Dielectrics. Following the completion of his PhD, Shudeman accepted a faculty appointment at the University of Texas, serving as a physics instructor until 1910.

While at Harvard, Shudeman became interested in Theosophy, a philosophical system seeking knowledge of God and the nature of divinity through mystical insight. Shudeman left the University of Texas and physics and as secretary of the Karma and Reincarnation Legion of Chicago spent the next twenty years of his life promoting Theosophy. Shudeman joined The American Theosophical Society in Chicago, became a member of its Credentials Committee, and organized a lodge in Austin, Texas. He contributed regularly to the journals Reincarnation and The American Theosophist and traveled extensively in the United States lecturing on Theosophy. In 1923, Shudeman traveled to Europe to speak to Theosophy organizations; he visited fourteen countries including Germany, Austria, Holland, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, England, and Italy. On June 10, 1928, Shudeman married his second cousin, Elizabeth O. Eberle (1894-1976), a sculptor and artist.

In the early 1930s, Shudeman returned to the study of physics and mathematics, and in 1934 became a member of the School of Mathematics at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, studying atomic physics. In 1937, Shudeman accepted a faculty position teaching physics at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. After leaving Florida in 1942, Shudeman taught at several schools including Haverford University, Smith College, Rutgers University, Vassar College, North Dakota State University, and the University of Illinois. While teaching at the University of Illinois, Shudeman suffered an accident on an elevated train and was forced to leave teaching. Shudeman moved to Bartow, Florida, remaining there until his death on March 25, 1950.

* Footnote on family surnames: According to the Unofficial history of the Physics Department at the University of Texas at Austin by Emeritus Professor Melvin Oakes, the spelling of Conrad’s family name, Schuddemagen, was changed by his siblings. It appears Conrad’s brothers adopted the surname Shudde while his sisters assumed the surname Shuddemagen. Conrad’s eight siblings include Walter John Shuddemagen (Shudde), March 24, 1895 – 1990; Henry Edward Shuddemagen (Shudde), July 24, 1885 – April 14, 1970; Louis Otto Shuddemagen (Shudde), August 3, 1890 – January 11, 1983; Emil Gerald Shuddemagen (Shudde), October 22, 1893 – 1987; Lily Clara Shuddemagen (Bryson), April 16, 1883 – February 12, 1983; Louise Caroline Shuddemagen (Holbrook), August 3, 1890 – 1987; Alma Louise Shuddemagen (Kellersberger), March 6, 1888 – October 2, 1976; Ida, lived only six days.