University of Wisconsin professor of mining and metallurgy Edwin Ray Shorey was born on August 10, 1884 in Appleton, Wisconsin. He received a degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1908 and began his career in mining with the Oliver Iron Company in Hibbing, Minnesota. In 1909 he started to work for the Vinegar Hill Zinc Company in Platteville, Wisconsin, spending ten years surveying, drilling, and blocking ore bodies. Then following service in the Engineering Corps during World War I Shorey returned to the University of Wisconsin to teach as associate professor of mining and metallurgy and to continue his own education toward a degree in mine engineering (completed 1922). He was promoted to full professor in 1939 and to chairman of the department in 1952, and he continued in that position until his retirement in 1955.
Shorey's principal research interest was in the application of flotation to the treatment of Wisconsin lead and zinc ores, and he directed work which led to the discovery of the only such practical treatment. Shorey also contributed to the spirit of cooperation which developed between the University and the Wisconsin mining industry, working as a consultant for several Wisconsin mining companies, as well as for companies in Canada and the southwest. He was interested in the entire range of safety and conservation issues associated with mining, and he served on several state committees that examined mining development in Wisconsin. In 1922 and 1937 he was chairman of the Industrial Commission's Advisory Committee on Mine Safety. As president of the Wisconsin-Illinois-Iowa Zinc and Lead Ore Producers Association he aided in the development of state and national legislation for the industry.
Shorey died on April 6, 1964. He was survived by his wife, Anna Dunn Shorey, and two children, Mary Scott and Robert, an oil company executive.
