Vincent Schaefer

Vincent Joseph Schaefer (July 4, 1906 – July 25, 1993) was an American chemist and meteorologist who developed cloud seeding. On November 13, 1946, while a researcher at the General Electric Research Laboratory, Schaefer modified clouds in the Berkshire Mountains by seeding them with dry ice. While he was self-taught and never completed high school, he was issued 14 patents.

Vincent J. Schaefer was the oldest son of Peter Aloysius Schaefer and Rose Agnes (Holtslag) Schaefer. He had two younger brothers, Paul and Carl, and two younger sisters, Gertrude and Margaret.

The Schaefer family lived in Schenectady, New York, and due to his mother's health, starting in 1921 the family made summer trips to the Adirondack Mountains. Vincent Schaefer had a lifelong association with the Adirondacks, as well as interests in hiking, natural history, and archeology. In his youth he was the founder of a local tribe of the Lone Scouts and with some of his tribe mates wrote and printed a tribe paper called "Archaeological Research." Schaefer credited this publication with his introduction to many prominent individuals in the Schenectady area, including Dr. Willis Rodney Whitney of the General Electric Research Laboratory.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Schaefer built up his personal library on natural history, science, and his other areas of interest and read a great deal. He also organized groups with those who shared his many interests — the Mohawk Valley Hiking Club in 1929, the Van Epps-Hartley Chapter of the New York Archaeological Association in 1931, and the Schenectady Wintersport Club (which established snow trains to ski slopes in the Adirondacks) in 1933–34. In 1931 Schaefer began work on creating the Long Path of New York (a hiking trail beginning near New York City and ending at Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks). During this period Schaefer also created adult education programs on natural history topics which gave him opportunities to speak in the community. Through these many activities Schaefer continued to expand his acquaintances, including John S. Apperson, an engineer at General Electric and a devout conservationist of the Adirondacks. Apperson introduced Schaefer to Irving Langmuir, a scientist at the GE Research Laboratory who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry. Among other things, Langmuir shared Schaefer's love of skiing and the outdoors.

During his retirement, Schaefer worked with photographer John Day on A Field Guide to the Atmosphere (1981), a publication in the Peterson Field Guide series. In addition to continuing his consulting work, Schaefer was in a position to devote much more of his time to some of his lifelong interests such as environmental issues, natural and local history. This included the writing of numerous articles and the delivering of many presentations concerning the natural environment of upstate New York and the human impact on it. He also devoted much of his time to the fight for the preservation of many wilderness areas and parks, such as the Mohonk Preserve, Vroman's Nose, and the Great Flats Aquifer. Schaefer's long-term interest in Dutch barns made it possible for him to assume the editorship of Dutch Barn Miscellany for a time and to build a scale model of a Dutch barn. He also did a lot of research on the original settler families of the Schenectady and Mohawk Valley areas. During his retirement, Schaefer reflected on his extraordinary life preparing timelines, an unpublished autobiography, and indexes to some of his research notebooks and film collections. Schaefer also attended to the disposition of his papers and library. He also worked on a project he entitled "Ancient Windows of the Earth." This involved the slicing of rocks thinly so as to create a translucent effect. When he mounted such pieces on lampshades or other objects, it created a stained-glass window effect from natural rock highlighting the rock's geologic history. As part of this project, Schaefer designed and built a 6' diameter window in memory of his parents for the Saint James Church in North Creek in the Adirondacks.

Schaefer married Lois Perret on July 27, 1935. Until their deaths they lived on Schermerhorn Road in Schenectady, in a house Schaefer built with his brothers, which they called Woestyne South. Woestyne North was the name the Schaefers gave to their camp in the Adirondacks. The Schaefers had three children, Susan, Katherine, and James.

In 1922, Schaefer's parents asked him to leave high school and go to work to supplement the family income. On the advice of his maternal uncles, Schaefer joined a four-year apprentice machinist course at General Electric. During the second year of his apprenticeship, Schaefer was granted a one-month leave to accompany Dr. Arthur C. Parker, New York State Archaeologist, on an expedition to central New York. As Schaefer was concluding the apprentice course in 1926 he was assigned to work at the machine shop at the General Electric Research Laboratory, where he worked for a year as a journeyman toolmaker.

Somewhat discouraged by the work of a toolmaker, Schaefer sought to satisfy a desire to work outdoors and to travel by joining, initially through a correspondence course, the Davey Institute of Tree Surgery in Kent, Ohio, in 1927. After a brief period working in Michigan, Schaefer asked to be transferred back to the Schenectady area and for a while worked as an independent landscape gardener. Upon the advice of Robert Palmer, Superintendent of the GE Research Laboratory, in 1929 Schaefer declined an opportunity to enter into a partnership for a plant nursery and instead rejoined the machine shop at the Research Laboratory, this time as a model maker.