George H. “Floopy” Dunlap

School of Textiles, NC State

George H. “Floopy” Dunlap
Years of Service NC State Textiles 1943 – 1969

 

George H. “Floopy” Dunlap was a native of Rock Hill, South Carolina where he completed public school. He graduated with a B.S. degree in textiles from Clemson College and took graduate work at the University of North Carolina, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State College.

He worked for several cotton mills in South Carolina and then joined the faculty at the Clemson textile school for thirteen years. He worked with a number of future NC State faculty including Clarence Asbill, Kenneth Campbell and Dean Malcolm Campbell. In 1941, he was appointed research supervisor for the Southern Textile Association, and in this capacity visited hundreds of mills throughout the Southeast. Among the research projects which he completed and which received wide publicity in the industry was a study of cotton card speeds. As a result of this project, many mills were able to increase their production to meet stepped up war needs during WW II.

Dean Campbell convinced Floopy to join him at NC State in1943, shortly after the Dean arrived. His knowledge of textile processes and textile people in industry shortly led him into the area of placement for graduating students. He became Placement Director and chairman of the Scholarship Committee. At some point his love of golf became well known and a means of getting students and faculty together was the formation of the annual Floopy Dunlap Golf Tournament.

Placement and recruiting were naturals for Floopy until the surge of students after WWII dwindled to a trickle and the school of textiles actually had to recruit students and sell the idea of a textile education. In the fall 1958 only 47 new students matriculated and a total of only 300 students were enrolled at all levels. Something had to be done. Literature was printed and a plan made. Neither Dame Hamby, Elliot Grover, nor Hank Rutherford had the time to get on the road, so they appointed Bill Smith, a young faculty member to join with Floopy and organize a high school recruiting program. With the help of the North Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association, the state was divided into twelve regions and a local textile industrialist appointed as Educational District Chairman. It worked. Within a year, enrollment swelled and Floopy and Bill were the heroes of the school.

Floopy in his office with Visiting Recruiters

Floopy Phi Psi Man of the Year 1960
Textile Forum June 1960

In 1960, Floopy was named Man of the Year by the NC State Chapter of the Phi Psi national honorary textile fraternity and honored at a banquet on May 14, 1960. Dean Campbell said, ”It could not have happened to a better man. I’ve known Floopy for a number of years (I won’t say how many) and in all those years, he has always accomplished what he set out to do in a very capable manner.” Phi Psi in presenting the award recognized the outstanding work he had done in the past and would continue until his retirement in 1965.

Floopy Retires 1969
School of Textile News, April 1969

 

Sources:

1. Mock, Gary N., A Century of Progress: The Textile Program North Carolina State University 1899­1999, North Carolina Textile Foundation, Raleigh, 2001.
2. Career Opportunities in Textiles, Textile Forum, December 1958, pages 7­9, 22.
3. Man of the Year, Textile Forum, June 1960, p 9.
4. George H. “Floopy” Dunlap Retires, School of Textiles News, Vol. 1, No. 3, April 1969, page 3.