Kranzberg, Melvin L (37406528)

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Melvin L Kranzberg
Personal details
Born	1917
Died	1995
Nativity	United States
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	37406528
Rank	Private First Class
Camp Ritchie	Class 20 (19 June – 16 August 1944)
Section	5E
Enlisted	Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
Team	IPW 151

Teammates

Team — IPW 151

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Kranzberg graduated from Amherst College, received a master's and a Ph.D. from Harvard University and served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. He received a Bronze Star for interrogating captured German prisoners and learning the location of Nazi gun emplacements. He was one of two interrogators out of nine in Patton's army who were not killed during the conflict. He received his interrogation training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland, making him one of the Ritchie Boys.

Biography

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Kranzberg graduated from Amherst College, received a master's and a Ph.D. from Harvard University and served in the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II. He received a Bronze Star for interrogating captured German prisoners and learning the location of Nazi gun emplacements. He was one of two interrogators out of nine in Patton's army who were not killed during the conflict. He received his interrogation training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland, making him one of the Ritchie Boys.

Kranzberg is known for his laws of technology, the first of which states "Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral."

He was one of the founders of the Society for the History of Technology in the United States and long-time editor of its journal Technology and Culture. Kranzberg served as president of the society from 1983 to 1984, and edited the society's journal from 1959 to 1981, when he turned it over to Robert C. Post of the Smithsonian Institution. The society awards a yearly $4000 fellowship named after Kranzberg to doctoral students engaged in the preparation of dissertations on the history of technology. The award is available to students all over the world. In 1967 Kranzberg was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal by the Society for the History of Technology.

Howard P. Segal wrote an informative semi-biographical tribute to Kranzberg in the Virginia Quarterly Review.

There are two biographical articles by Robert C. Post in Technology and Culture: * "Back at the Start: History and Technology and Culture," T&C 51 (2010): 961–94 * "Chance and Contingency: Putting Mel Kranzberg in Context," T&C 50 (2009): 839–72.

Kranzberg helped found the International Committee for the History of Technology.

The timeline research also records Completed 4 years at Amherst College. Master’s and PhD at Harvard.

Research notes

• http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/09/us/melvin-kranzberg-78-historian-of-technology.html

Gallery

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Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	78
Nara ASN	37406528
Nara Name	KRANZBERG MELVIN L
Nara State	75
Nara County	189
Nara POE	7545
Nara DOE	281242
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Grade Code	8
Nara Branch Alpha	BI
Nara Branch Code	0
Branch	Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Nara Term or Enlistment	5
Term of enlistment	Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law
Defer. Date	0
Nara Source	0
Nara Nativity	75
Nativity.1	MISSOURI
Nara Year of Birth	20
Nara Race	1
Nara Race Description	White citizen
Nara Education	8
Nara Civilian Occupation	993
Nara Marital Status	2
Nara Height (inches)	72
Nara Weight (lbs)	239
Class_ASN	13106147
Class_Name	KRANZBERG, Melvin
match_method	pass2_unique_name
row_source	both

Timeline

• 9/4/1944 Promoted to S/Sgt.
• 1/16/1945 Promoted to T/Sgt.
• 8/1943 ASTP at U. of Indiana as Pfc.
• Assigned to IPW Team 151 attached to Third Army.
• Drafted into Army as Pvt (ASN 35060279).
• Started Class 20 (German).

Sources

• Wikipedia: Melvin Kranzberg
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Melvin L Kranzberg for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Kranzberg, Melvin L for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: MELVIN KRANZBERG.doc)