xt76m902237w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt76m902237w/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. College of Arts and Sciences. Department of Chemistry 1985 newsletters  English University of Kentucky. Department of Chemistry Newsletters Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. University of Kentucky Department of Chemistry newsletters Chem-news, Spring 1985 text Chem-news, Spring 1985 1985 2019 true xt76m902237w section xt76m902237w , if ,, 1
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This issue ofthe newsletter primarily covers “The New Embryology: t/lolecules and 7/3 are also grateful for the funds con—
events and information for the academic year lt/lcchanisrns Eetermining Animal Forin. ” trihutcd by our alumni and friends which are
1983—84; Highlights are covered in the Speakers were: Dr. Gerald r/l. Edelrtian, used to suooor’t fellowsl'iios, equipment our—
message From our chairman, Bob Guthrie, llobel Laureate, Vincint Astor Distinguished chases, seminar weaken; arid reli‘elihrnencs for
and a report from Don Sands, "ii/ice Chan- Professor, The Rockefeller University; and our seminars. These funds trial-:3 possible 210-
cellor for Academic Affairs. .We are featuring Dr. Bruce A. Cunningham, Professor, Devel— iivities which cannot be funded from state ap-
a section on our alumni who graduated opinentaJ and iviolecular Biology, The Rocke- propriations. it you wish to make contribu-
1935-39. in addition to the many faculty teller University. On the tenth anniversary of tions to the University to be used by the
grants listed in Bob Guthrie’s comments and the symposia, Dr. r/l. Benton llaff presented Departn’ient of Chemistry, please specify that
News from the Faculty and Stan", we received a brief history of the accomplishments of Anna the donation is for the Zeoartment of Chem—
a gilt of photographic recording paper from S. l‘lafl‘, which is included in the newsletter. istry Development Fund lo; the unrescricted
Ashland Oil (via David Wesley) to the lVlass "Vi/e welcome any suggestions for topics and use by the Department or soecilic programs
Spectrometry Center, and substantial addi— speakers for future symposia and hope you can in the Department. Donations maybe sent to
tiOns to the Anna S. Naff Endowment Fund, attend the excellent programs that are made the Director of Development, l/‘Jilliam B.
A. S. Behrman Fund, and contributions from possible by the endowment fund. Sturgill Development Building, University of
our alumni. lNe thank those who respond to our request Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40505.
The Tenth Symposium on Chemistry and for news which I hope you enjoy in our Alum—
lVIolecular Biology, supported by the fund in ni News Section. Enclosed is a form for your ‘/"/illiatn ll. ‘./‘/agne1‘, Editor
memory ot’Anna S. Naif was held on l‘i/larch convenience in keeping us up to date and any
30, 1984“. The topic of the symposium was change of address.
t
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1954 Symposium on Chemishy and [Molecular Bioluy.‘ Left 10 rig/2!: Dr. Gerald Il/I. Edelmmz, Dr. Ila/.5. 1V9}: and Dr. Bram A. Cumlz'ng/zam.
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._

 A Message from the Chairman
I am happy to report that Joe Wilson University. John then returned to biochemical for the current academic year and this has
brought in a bumper crop of new graduate studies for two years with I. A. Rose at the already had the remarkable effect of raising
students this fall, 18 in all, with several more Fox Chase Cancer Center doing enzyme the average ACT scores of our entering fresh-
to join us in the spring. This was largely due kinetics. He is presently the Herchel Smith man by two units. Another major develop-
‘ to personal effort on Joe’s part but was helped Fellow in Organic Chemistry at Cambridge ment will be the availability of $700,000 for
somewhat by the Chancellor’s decision to University. His research will add to a grow- academic scholarships to be used to attract
remit a part of tuition fees for graduate ing interest in biological chemistry within the outstanding high school seniors to the Univer- l
teaching assistants. We are expecting that next department and will provide a useful interface sity of Kentucky next year. Several of us were
year, tuition for graduate teaching assistants with the physical organic group. involved in a university program to directly if
will be completely eliminated thus effectively We’re still looking hard to find an addition contact outstanding high school seniors to ex- t
increasing the stipend we can offer. Our to the analytical faculty. Analytical chemists plain our undergraduate program in chem-
stipends are still not equal to those offered by are in short supply and there is great demand. istry. It would appear that many potential
our competitors, but we are making progress. Also, modern analytical research tends to be chemistry majors have been told that there are

This fall Dr. Dennis Clouthier joined our expensive and a substantial initial investment better places in the State of Kentucky to pur-
faculty. Dennis received his Ph.D. from the by the University is required. sue their goal. It is important that we disabuse
University of Saskatchewan and then did a Several of our faculty have obtained major them of this notion.
postdoctoral under D. A. Ramsey at the Na- grants in the last year. Bill Ehmann is par- This past spring we initiated a series of
tional Research Center. in Ottawa. Dennis is ticipating in a major study of the relationship meetings which allowed a group of our facul~
a spectroscopist and helps to fill our critical of trace elements to Alzheimer’s disease. This ty headed by Bob Kiser and jim Holler to
need in the area of experimental physical is being funded by the National Institutes of discuss matters of mutual interest with area
chemistry. Already lasers, vacuum systems Health at $600,000. Laren Tolbert has had high school chemistry teachers. The culmina-
and 3-meter cells are popping up around the two grants funded, one from the National tion of these efforts was a topics course offered
building like crocuses. Dennis’ work will be Science Foundation to continue his work in during the summer. The high school teachers
aided by the availability of the department’s carbanion photochemistry and another from specified a series of topics and almost all of
new Fourier Transform Infrared Spec- the Department of Energy to start in on a new our faculty contributed one or two lectures.
trophotometer obtained by Professors Nieden- project dealing with the involvement of car- The UK participants generously agreed to
zu and Selegue with an equipment grant from banions in polyacetylene behavior. Also, Steve donate their income from this effort to the
the Department of Defense. Dennis’ con- Yates’ joint grant with members of the Physics Departmental Development Fund. The course
tagious enthusiasm has been inspiring for all Department to study nuclear structure was drew rave reviews from the high school
of us. renewed by NSF for three years. Grant sup- teachers.

We’re hoping to add at least two new peo- port is becoming increasingly more difficult All in all I feel that the ratio of progress to
ple next year. One of them will be Dr. John to obtain but, with decreasing State support, resources is excellent. We sincerely appreciate
Richard. John got his Ph.D. at Ohio State as it is critical that we continue to do well in this the contributions and suggestions that many
a biochemist but then did a postdoctoral stint area. of you have made.
of three years learning mechanistic organic As you may already know, the University
chemistry under W. P. Jencks at Brandeis has instituted a restricted admissions policy Robert D- Guthrie, Chairman

Academic Affairs at the University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky is changing cational opportunities for all high school grad- our first experience with selective admissions,
academically. Those of you who were here in uates has not been abandoned; the Communi- the size of our freshman class dropped from
the mid-sixties witnessed the transformation ty College System will remain open admis- about 2,700 to about 2,300. But the mean
of the University into a modern research in- sions, and Lexington Technical Institute has ACT composite score rose from 19.7 to 21.7,
stitution. Events in progress now have the been converted into a full—scale community making this the best freshman class in the
potential for equally dramatic changes in college to serve as an entry to higher educa- University’s historyé We think that it is im-
undergraduate education. tion for local students. But the main campus perative that we make selective admissions

In this academic year, the University of (which in Current parlance is known as the work and demonstrate that the University of

Kentucky took the major step of implemen- Lexington Campus, to distinguish it from the Kentucky is the premier institution in the ’5
ting a policy of selective admissions. New Medical Center and the Community College Commonwealth in both graduate and under-
freshmen admitted in the fall of 1984- had to System, each of which has its own chancellor) graduate education.

demonstrate that they were capable of meeting is able to devote its resources to students with For many years, the University of Kentuc- s
the academic standards of the University; the the ability and motivation to thrive in the ky has been rather complacent about enroll-
principal admissions criteria were ACT scores stimulating environment of a research ment. Availability of dormitory space imposed

and high school grades that would predict a university. some restraints, but mostly we stretched to ac-

C average after one year at UK. As our grad- Selective admissions has come to the commodate all the students who wanted to

uates can attest, the University always has University at a time of generally declining give the flagship university atry. We now find
maintained high standards for degree can- enrollments in higher education. It may seem it necessary to exert ourselves to attract

didates. Now, though, even enrolling here is even foolhardy to move to selective admissions students in the numbers we need and of the

limited to students deemed likely to succeed. when the number of traditionally college- ability to benefit from what we have to offer.

UK’s historic commitment to providing edu- bound eighteen-year-olds is diminishing. In To cope with these new demands, the Office

2

 of Admissions and Registrar has been reor- As I hinted above, the State has not seen may be poor in financial resources, but we are
ganized, and a new Director of Admissions fit to invest new money in education in any rich in people, and that is the real and abiding
has been hired. A new University Registrar form, much less in higher education. Yet, Strength of the University of Kentucky.
is being sought also, and the person selected many good things are happening here. Our
for this job will be responsible for moderniz- faculty, our staff, our students, and our alum- Donald E. Sands, Vice Chancellor
ing and automating our student records and ni have all pitched in to do whatever they can for Academic Affairs
registration systems. to make the University a better institution. ‘Ne
Scholarship programs are vital to our efforts
to attract academicall su erior students to the ”a ,ji ,, .. .. rFl-n , ,4 r: / H m n , u ,
“ University Of Kentucky. Besides being power- (3 lfltJCd‘LJi Li @973 Q'ElLl Cl @lfd IE utii “EKG LfJKlj lltfl if] g
ful recruiting tools, academic scholarships are
i a means of proclaiming the importance to this The last newsletter contained a request for the “Proficiency Exams” — ACS standardiz—
; University ofacademic achievfiment For the help from alumni in distributing information ed entrance exams — was better than in re-
fall of 1985, the scholarship funds available on our graduate program to universities and cent years and most have done well in their
to us will be approximately ten times those we colleges in their areas. l/Ve are grateful for the first semester of course work. Four more new
had two years earlier. We have tapped tem- response we received and encourage others to students entered in the spring semester of
porary sources of money to meet our im- help us in spreading the word. 1985. We are encouraged by both the quality
mediate scholarship needs, and our efforts The class of new graduate students enter and quantity of the 1984—85 group.
now must be directed toward building an en- ing in the Fall of 1984 was the largest in re— If you would like to distribute our poster
dowment that will generate at least $700,000 cent times. Eighteen new students started in and booklets to colleges near you or to make
annually for academic merit scholarships. In late August. Eight had received bachelor’s personal contact with departments or students,
just three months this fall, UK alumni con- (16ng65 from Kentucky colleges, one from please send a postcard to Dr. J. W. Wilson,
tributed more than $50,000 to our Academic China, and nine from colleges in Penn— Department ofChcmistry, University ofKen-
Excellence Scholarship Fund, so we are Op“ sylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, tucky, Lexington, KY 40506.
timistic that we can attain our goals. Michigan, and Iowa. Their performance on
Kentuckians have contributed full to the
national expressions of concern abbut the [Alf] [BEE fin/EEC] S©h©®3 liltfing HM] Elf? .
quality of education, although the Com-
monwealth has not accepted that at least one For a, .. aav- ._,,_. Warwaaaa
of the problems with education is a lack of l . . '_ ‘ “I ‘ . g ‘
money. Still, we are pleased that there may . , l _ .l' (v
be growing public awareness of the impor- , ‘5’} ‘ ‘.
tance of education. Here at the University, ‘ v' 1:5:
we have been examining our educational pro— ‘ . \:
grams to see how they might be improved, and ' J; ' 1:}!
a thorough revamping of our General Studies . , ’ - “
program will be proposed to the faculty this , , "
spring. It is difficult for a large comprehen— , 1.5. ‘ ,
sive land—grant university such as ours to agree : Ti? ’ ”.7;
on a curriculum to be required of all its ‘ l . i i 7'
students. But there are some basic skills and 7}, , '
a core of knowledge that our graduates should “ '
have, and our new University requirements ”’1 , . . ' ‘ ,
will attempt to impart these. Kentucky stu— , l
dents entering college in 1987 and thereafter , l ' -
will be expected to have completed a pre- ‘
college curriculum in high school, so part of ~ . ~ , , ewe w A
the general education base will have been Anna S. Nafl' [aft—1946 in Lexington, rig/1!: 1972 NIH Library Slafl Photo.
completed before these students arrive here.
Those of you who were familiar with our Anna Lea Schoulties was born on a farm Science degree in 1946; a publication based
computing facilities as recently as two years in northern Kentucky on November 29, 1920. on her thesis appeared in 1947.
ago would be amazed at the rapid devel- During her early education at Cold Spring Anna was married to Benton Naff in
V opments that have taken place in that area. High School her favorite subject was mathe— December, 1946, in Portland, OR. In 1946-47
Our instructional computing facilities have matics. She was the salutatorian of her class. she taught chemistry at the University of Ken—
grown from nothing to three Prime computers After finishing high school Anna worked sum- tucky and in 1947-50 at Oregon State Uni—
? (two 850’s and a 9950), and our mainframe mers and studied for two years at Eastern versity.
computer now is an IBM 3081-K. Many col- Kentucky University. She worked for a year While her husband was located at Bowling
leges and departments have their own at Williamson Heater in Cincinnati before Green State University in Ohio, Anna attend-
minicomputers and the campus is suddenly transferring to the University of Kentucky’s ed the University ofMichigan in Ann Arbor,
teeming with microcomputers. Among the Department of Home Economics. Her earning a Master of Arts degree in Library
beneficiaries ofthis computer expansion is our graduation in 1944 was “with distinction”. Science. At that time (1953) she began
Library system, which next fall will start us- Receipt ofa Haggin Fellowship enabled her research with the Owens Illinois Glass Com-
ing an automated catalog and checkout to undertake undergraduate and graduate pany exploring the properties of epoxy resins
system. work in chemistry. She received a Master of and silicones. Her investigations resulted in
3

 an important practical contribution: the in- grants and produced a number of chemical Health. Her experience in Acquisition and
vention ofan organic ink for use on glass, pa— research publications (1955-63). Cataloging provided significant professional
tent issued 1958. During her husband’s 1964-65 sabbatical, advancement and she continued at NIH un-
When the family moved from Ohio to Anna served as a librarian at Brown Univer— til the end of her career. Anna died September
Washington, DC in 1955, Anna’s research sity. A year later she continued her library 21, 1973.
continued, but in an academic environment. work, first at the National Bureau of Stan-
She assisted her husband in the acquisition of dards and then at the National Institutes of
, American Crystallographic Assocratlon Meeting ,
The annual American Crystallographic satisfaction from her accomplishments rather sembled the program in surface crystal- it!
Association Meeting was held May 20-25, than as a tragic figure deprived of the Nobel lography, which attracted 50-60 people to 3
1984- in the Department of Chemistry. Don Prize. David Sayre, in his address to 230 peo- many of its sessions. This is clearly an area ,
Sands served as the Chairman of the Local ple at the banquet, recounted the history of in its infancy, as Somorjai pointed out in his
Committee with the assistance of Carol Brock, crystallography and speculated on future invited lecture.
Phil Fanwick, and Larry Scheurich in our developments. David was interviewed by two The Patterson award addresses by Haupt-
department. Mary Richardson, who received local TV stations; they were more interested man and Karle attracted about 150 people,
her Ph.D. degree in 1967 and is a Professor in his connections with FORTRAN and Lex- as did Lipscomb’s talk on aspartate trans-
at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, ington’s Sayre School than with the science carbamylase.
was the Program Chairman. of crystallography. Other special sessions and their atten-
Approximately 300 scientists attended to John Stezowski’s symposium on Molecules dances: Databases 25-40; Neutron Studies of
hear 173 papers plus an additional five presen- in Motion was a huge success and drew sub- Catalysts 30-40; Macromolecular Phasing
‘ tations in the Workshop on Crystal Packing. stantial audiences for all 11 presentations. 40-70; Solving Difficult Structures 100 (ap-
All sessions were well-attended in spite of the Speakers came from the U.S., Switzerland, proximate). Several sessions of contributed
fact that three sessions ran parallel to one England, Germany, and Canada, and lent a papers drew audiences of 20-40; and there .
another every day except the first. truly international flavor to the whole meeting. were groups of people in the poster sessions
The Sayre team commanded large au- The symposium went hand-in-hand with the practically all day long.
diences. Three hundred people sat spellbound workshop organized by Wally Cordes on The meeting closed Thursday evening.
while Anne Sayre recounted the story of Crystal Packing and Non-Bonded Forces, at- About 100 people attended the final session,
Rosalind Franklin and DNA, and presented tended by approximately 100. Crystallography for Fun and Profit, organized
Rosalind as a scientist who gained much Michel Van Hove and Gabor Somorjai as- by Hugo Steinfink.
Special News from the 1935 39 Alumni
We were pleased to receive responses from In your letter to me you listed Bill Luther a graduate of UK. Roy guided me into the
the following alumni in answer to our request as one for whom you need an address. I saw Industrial Chemistry course at UK. It was a
to bring us up-to-date on their activities since Bill frequently, throughout the sixties and great favor!
graduation. seventies because we were both active in the Over the past twenty years the Keffers and
textile industry. Somewhere along the line Bill the Irvines have shared tables at a lot of dances
1937 organized LUTEX, INC. LUTEX supplied and have played a lot of bridge and golf
James W. Higgins, B.S., sent the follow- fiber lubricants and tints to fiber manufac- together. Roy retired from research at P.
ing information: After graduation in june turers and yarn spinners. Bill and LUTEX Lorillard and is now an active stamp and coin
1937 I started as a chemist for Swift and Com- had the industry wide reputations of being dealer. He is considered by banks and estate
pany, Chicago. Then, after service in the Ar- “the best”. appraisers to be the number one Stamp expert
my in World War II, I returned to Swift R. A few years ago I “organized” a one man in this part of North Carolina.
and D. Department. This led to various company (ROCKREATION, Inc.) as consul- In corresponding with the graduates from
technical sales positions, etc. I retired just last tants in chemistry and as lapidarists. the thirties you are probably discovering a
year from one of the Esmark (Swift) Divisions. ROCKREATION, Inc. is retained on annual general feeling that “retirement” and/or
James B. Irvine, B.S., Industrial fee consulting basis by three textile process- “semi-retirement” are pretty good times of r
Chemistry. He was an analytical chemist with ing companies. life.
Hercules Powder Co. in 1937. From 1938-40 The consulting work is permitted to occupy Martha, who has kept me on track for 47
he was a developmental chemist with Quaker no more than two days per week. The re- years, would have been a 1938 graduate of .
City Chemical Co. in Philadelphia. He served mainder of this time is spent on lapidary work, UK had I not persuaded her to marry me and
as a textile chemist with Collins and Aikman golf, preparation for TV shows (minerals, finish her education at the University of
Corp, 1940-45, before joining Quaker Chem- fossils, gems, etc.), church work, workshops Delaware.
ical Corp. , Conshohocken, PA where he for earth science teachers and support for the We have one son who is a chemical engineer
stayed until he retired from them the second Boy Scouts of America. (University of Wisconsin) at Monsanto and
time at age 68. He wrote: Thank you for your When I moved here in 1964 I had the another who is a mining engineer in Denver,
plan of ferreting out facts about long gone pleasure of meeting my high school (Univer- CO.
students. I’ve enjoyed reading the subsequent sity High on the UK campus) chemistry and C. Alfred Roswell, BS. 1937, MS. 1939.
chronicle of some of my college day friends. math teacher, John LeRoy Keffer, who is also I started as a student at UK in 1933, having
4

 been inspired to do chemistry by my Univer— E M H , if, T E W '7' i y I i 7 H i H .- 77 i E;
sity High School teacher James L. Keffer, a E ,E f , E 77.x" E; , .E ;
previous product of the UK Chemistry De— E E H E _ EE E . , ‘ 3 ’
partment. It was a rough start. At registra- E, E E E E E E E a: E .j 7 . E . 1
tion I encountered the IVIighty Maxson and E ,. EE E1 E i i E E E E , E E l":
Iquote: “So you want to major in chemistry? E. { E ii ‘ EE . f i E . E . r E E
V‘Jell we can’t find you a job when you’re l. . . ,E 1 '
through. Why don’t you go to the College of E E , E ' ’ ' , ‘ . ' a ' ;
Commerce? Anyway if lVIitchell doesn’t flunk 'i ‘ f ' , y . . .1.
if you the first year I will get you the second . ' . E. E ' .L/VE ’7 j
, year.” Needless to say, I survived both E ./ t ,. " ' I ' V _' E . 4 '.
EEE Mitchell and lVIaxson. Dr. Stewart was a great E , I ' E ' . ' * .
3 help to me and I took more than the required ‘ . , .f , - EE
_ analytical chemistry courses. I also worked for l ‘ ;
him in the storeroom, being paid 25 cents an 1 "E
hour by the N.Y.A. He also taught me glass— E . ' ' 3‘. V .
blowing, a skill I found very useful later. E . j E, ;
There was some doubt on the part ofmy class- , " 1 :
mates that I would graduate on time as I took . y E V 'i
Bob Baker’s qualitative organic analysis . f E . E _ '
course in my last semester, a supposedly one E' I E 1
semester course in which many incompletes V' i ’ ' MWT—TTT—‘—fivm“mw‘""‘”"""""
were given. I was very proud Of the A that The Old Experiment Station served as UK. ’Sfirsl 01127712317] building from 1689 [0 1909.
Bob Baker gave me when I finished quite
early.
Maxson was right. On graduation in 1937 hydrocarbon mixture used with the big still, Allied Chem (it Dye Corp’s patent department
I found that there were very few desirablejobs the results were as expected, with the cxcep- would be open. Ijoined Allied Chem & Dye
available. I decided at this point to study in tion of the small spinning band still. It was in December 1945. Between commuting to
Germany and I left in June for Heidelberg, one half of the value of that found with the downtown New York City, first from New
Germany where I obtained a Scholarship for carbon tetrachloride—benzene mixture, There Haven and later from Stamford, CT, and tak-
the following year. It was here that I met my was apparently a centrifugal effect. I still have ing the midnight train home after law class,
future wife, an Irish girl studying languages autographed copies of the paper that was Igot the feeling that I might meet myself com-
on a fellowship from Trinity College, Dublin. published by Baker, Barkenbus, and Roswell. ing out the front door some morning. The
In the spring of 1938 Hitler marched into Late that fall a representative from Servel result was that a year later I decided to go back
Austria. The signs ofa future war were strong, Inc. , makers of the Electrolux gas refrigerator, to the laboratory.
so my parents suggested my returning to Lex- came to UK looking for a chemist or engineer U.S. Industrial Alcohol Co. shared ajoint
ington. Idid so in April and shortly afterwards who had some knowledge of glassblowing. research laboratory with the Air Reduction
registered as a graduate student at UK. In the The result was that I found myselfinjanuary Co. in Stamford, CT, and it was with U.S.I.
fall of the year I began working toward a of 1940 in Evansville, IN working for Servel that I took a position as a research chemist in
Masters thesis under the jurisdiction of Dr. as a research engineer. By the fall of 1940 I 1946. In 1948 U.S.I. and Airco parted ways
Barkenbus, not only an excellent teacher but had persuaded the Irish girl May Mac Gin- and U.S.I. moved its research group to
also a wonderful person. Miss E. A. Mitts and nis to leave the Blitz behind in England and Baltimore, MD. I bought a farm in Howard
Ishared a problem in early 1939 that resulted to marry me in October, just as I had left County, ten miles from Baltimore, and for a
in both of us getting our M.S. and a joint Servel to do further graduate work at Wiscon~ while, with the help ofmy family, farmed part—
publication with Dr. Barkenbus. Both Baker sin. In June of 1941 I took a summerjob with time while working as an organic research
and Barkenbus were very interested in distilla- Servel and because of the war situation I chemist with U.S.I.
tion columns at this time. Baker had built a stayed on at Servel doing research on various National Distillers bought out U.S.I. in
small spinning band column that, on testing wartime projects. In 1943 Servel started ajoint 1952, and proceeded to cut the old U.S.I. staff
with a carbon tetrachloride-benzene mixture, effort with Republic Aviation to build fighter by about 30%. I was transferred to a special
gave a very high theoretical plate value. As planes and thus it began closing down its National project, the production of sebacic
a result they decided to make one ten times research. acid from a sodium dispersion in iso-octane
as long. This was the column that Dr. Baker At this point I took a position with the reacted first with butadiene to form sodium
5‘ mentioned in the 1981 Chem—News. Naugatuck Chemical Division ofU. S. Rub— octadiene, a really hazardous compound. This
I didn’t finish my M.S. thesis work until ber Co. as a research chemist, at Naugatuck, was then reacted with carbon dioxide and at
mid-summer of 739. By this time Baker had CT. By the end of the war I had become sen- this point things no longer caught fire or blew
' left to complete his Ph.D. work at Wisconsin sitized to some of the chemicals I had worked up. National sold the Baltimore facilities of
and as a result Dr. Barkenbus asked ifI would with so the company moved me into chemical U.S.I. to the F.M.C. Company in 1958 but
like to help run the big spinning band still. patent work. Since the best chance for any retained the pilot plant it had built for the
Imust have climbed the ladder that surround— future advancement at that time was to sebacic acid project in 1955.
ed that still a thousand times, taking readings become a patent attorney, I decided to look Not wanting to leave my farm and move
along the way and samples top and bottom, for a place in New York where I could attend to Cincinnati, OH, where National had its
and still the theoretical plate value was only night law school. main research laboratory, I took a position for
half what it should have been. It turned out Dr. F. W. Wyman, a 1939 classmate of a short while with American Alcolac, a
that this was the right value: when we reran mine who was well on his way to becoming Baltimore Company. Then I rejoined my old
tests of all the small stills with the same a lawyer, suggested that his position with group at F.M.C. I remained with F.M.C. un-
5 ,

 til 1972 when they closed down their research He has been active in church, medical and of Saline Water at Freeport, TX for the con-
in Baltimore, moving most of their projects civic affairs, past District Governor ofRotary version of sea water to fresh water. I also
to their main research laboratory in Princeton, Kentucky 671 and participated in Rotary worked on other plants and processes such as
NJ. Itook early retirement and kept busy for travel throughout the world: Africa, South salt manufacture, environmental problems,
a while with my hobbies, amateur telescope America, China, Russia, Australia, India, pulp and paper projects, and cement plants.
making and astronomy. Also I obtained my and most countries of the world. Bechtel Power Corp. opened an office in
amateur radio license. John H. Holmes B.S. , Industrial Ann Arbor in late 1972 and Ijoined them in
In my later years at F.M.C. I had gotten Chemistry, submitted the following: After early 1973 and served as project engineer for
more and more into the field of organic graduation in 1938 I chose to continue my a$350,000,000 — 800 megawatt electric gen-
chemical analysis, particularly instrumenta- studies at the University of Michigan and crating station for Detroit Edison Co. This 1"
tion analysis. When the state of Maryland changed my major to chemical engineering as project consumed seven and a half years of my (
built a new laboratory in 1973, quite near my the job market was less than rosy at that time. life and I retired from Bechtel in 1980. 1
home, for analysis of various fuels and their I received my M.S. in chemical engineering I keep as busy as I wish in retirement. I am _
additives, they needed a chemist with a knowl- in February 1940 from the University of active in the Michigan Society of Professional -
edge of analytical instruments to set up several Michigan. Engineers, Kiwanis, am on the session of the
new instruments and get them operating. As Fortunately, I was offered a job with du— church, take two or three trips each year, and
a result I joined the Gasoline Tax Division of Pont in their Engineering Department. It w