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0bituary Marjorie Jean Vold, 1913-1991 The colloid and interface community lost a valued and respected colleague with the death on November 4,1991, of Marjorie Jean Vold. Professor Vold enjoyed an internationalreputation based on her extensive studies of the phase behavior and kinetic properties of soaps, liquid crystals, and colloidal suspensions. From her first publication in these areas in 1938 until her latest effort, which appears in this issue, her work is characterized by enthusiasm, clarity, and rigor. She received many honors including the Garvan Medal of the AmerimChemical Society(l967)andLosAngelesTimes Woman of the Year (1966). Generations of students will remember Marjorie Vold for her vibrant, incisive lectures in elementary chemistry coupled with a passion for excellence and an instinctive ability to inspire interest in her studenta. Perhaps less well known but no less important,Majorie Vold also brought the fmt experience of the joys of science to several generations of young Boy and Girl Scouts. Marjorie Vold was born in Ottawa and moved to California at an early age. She was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was class valedictorian in 1934 and received the Ph.D. degree in 1936. After postdoctoral work at Stanford, she moved withher husbandtotheuniversityof SouthernCalifornia in 1941. During the war (1942-1946) she waa a research chemist for Union Oil Co., returning to the academe as a Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Southern California in 1947. From 1958until retirement in 1973 she was an Adjunct Professor a t the same institution. Retirement, to Marjorie Vold, simply meant continuation of her scientific endeavors in a different s e t t i i . In addition to numerous papers published during this stage ofher illustriouscarreer,shecompletedwork, begunjointly with her late husband Robert D. Vold, on the important
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reference text Colloid Chemistry. Her latest research on premicelles was supported by a grant from the Research Corp., which made it possible for her to continue computations despite being confined to a hospital bed. Her courage and persistence in the face of a 35-year battle with multiple sclerosis is truly remarkable and remains a permanent source of inspiration to all who knew her. With her passing she leaves her daughters Mary and Wylda and her son Robert. She is greatly missed.
Robert L. Vold National Science Foundation Washington, D.C.20550
0 1992 American Chemical Society
