American Iris for Norman Merriman

Hidden in plain sight beneath the Drown Hall patio is a small plaque among the irises that offers remembrance for Norman Merriman. Merriman was the youngest of the five children of Mansfield Merriman, a well-known professor of Civil Engineering at Lehigh University from 1878 to 1907.

Norman Merriman graduated from Lehigh in the Class of 1905 and went on to find his own financial accounting firm, Merriman, Bannister, & Co. He died in his office in 1944. Next time you walk around campus, look around for what you may find could be a little piece of history on the ground, in the flower beds, under your feet…