FATHERS AND SONS IN CHEMISTRY T h e West Virginia Clarks
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HEN the chemical history of West Virginia is written, the name of Clark will have an important and honorable place. Friend Ebenezer Clark was born in 1876 in the town of New Martinsville, W. Va. Clark graduated at West Virginia University in 1898 and then went to Johns Hopkins, attracted by the fame of Ira Remsen, who was the foremost American teacher of chemistry and still at the height of his abilities. Under the master, Clark pursued his thesis work on the chlorides of orthosulfobensoic acid, and received his doctor's degree in 1902. After a year of instructorship at West Virginia and two years at Pennsylvania State, Dr. Clark became professor of chemistry at Centre College, Danville, Ky., and for nine years maintained a high level of instruction as a capable successor to Chase Palmer. During this period, in 1911, he was married to Miss Emma May Hanna, a member of the faculty of the Kentucky College for Women. In 1914 the Clarks moved to Morgantown, W. Va., for Dr. Clark had been
NEWS MAKERS Leslie R. Bacon, who for 12 years has been with the research departments of the American Doucil and Philadelphia Quartz Cos., has accepted a position as research leader in the research organization of the J. B. Ford Co., Wyandotte, Mich. M. M. Beckwith, formerly chief chemist with the Guide Lamp Division of the General Motors Corp., is now a technical representative in the Industrial Cleaners Department of the J. B. Ford Sales Co., Wyandotte, Mich. Robert D. Coghill, formerly assistant professor of chemistry at Yale University, has been appointed chief of the Fermentation Division, Northern Regional Research Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Peoria, 111. He will direct research involving the utilization of bacteria, yeasts, and molds as agents for converting wheat, corn, and agricultural waste products into chemicals and products of industrial or agricultural interest. Robert T. Conner, formerlv instructor in chemistry at Columbia University* has
appointed professor of chemistry at his alma mater. There he has been head of the department since 1921, chairman of the graduate council since 1935, and one of the leading factors in the steady development and improvement of the university. Friend E. Clark's scholarship is attested by his membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Phi Lambda Upsilon. Although he has not neglected research, for example on the reaction of chloroethers with salts of organic acids, his heart and soul have been in teaching. He has a keen interest, not only in his subject and its advances, but in other chemists and in his students, and he adds to this so much enthusiasm and humor that those who come under his instruction cannot help feeling that chemistry is a live and fascinating science. The older Clark has also had the share of administrative work that goes with headship of a sizable department, and has had the responsibility for building two laboratories, one at Centre College and the present modern one at West Virginia University. He is a contributing editor to the Journal of Chemical Education.
Dr. Clark's acquaintance with American chemists is more than ordinarily large, and he always knows where his many friends are and what they are doing. He relishes the amusing personal incidents of acquaintanceship and classroom experience and relates them well. Samuel Friend Clark was born in Danville, Ky., in 1914. Majoring in chemistry, he received the degrees of A.B. and M.S. from West Virginia University, the former in 1934 and the latter in 1936. His master's thesis was on phenylmorpholine as a dye intermediate. After a year's graduate work at Johns Hopkins young Clark migrated to the University of North Carolina (the Clarks seem to have a fondness for the South) and received his doctor's degree there in 1939, the thesis subject being "A Systematic Approach to the Constitution of Natural Tannins.'' Like his father, the younger Clark is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Phi Lambda Upsilon. On August 1 he entered the plastics division of the Carbide and Carbon Corp., South Charleston, W. Va.
accepted a position in the Biochemical Division of the General Foods Co.. and will be located at the Central Laboratories, Hoboken, N. J.
ville, Fla., has been made acting director of the School of Pharmacy at that institution. Richard Geckler, who received his A.B. degree in June from De Pauw University, is now employed as a chemist in the high-pressure laboratory of the Research Department, Standard Oil Co. of Indiana, Whiting, Ind. Paul E. Grotts, formerly director of the Kentucky Testing Laboratory, has joined the staff of Foster D. Snell, inc. James H. Hibben, who for some years has been on the staff of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has been appointed chief of the Chemical Division of the United States Tariff Commission. He began his new duties in the late summer. Norman O. Long has resigned his assistant professorship at the South Dakota State College to accept the position left vacant by the retirement of Albert D. Wheddon in the State Teachers College, Superior, Wis. Professor Wheddon had held the position for 36 years. V. C. Williams has been appointed assistant professor of chemical engineering at tne University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. Mr. Williams has been a chemical engineer for the Linde Air Products Co., Buffalo, N. Y., and has been actively engaged in design and process development work. John D. Zech is now employed as a chemist in the research division of the Socony Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., Paulsboro, N. J.
Edgar I. Emerson has been appointed head of the Departments of Chemistry and Biology of HiUyer Junior College, Hartford, Conn* The college, which has functioned solely as a night school for 50 years, has been enlarged and a day division has been added. Foster D. Snell, Inc., announces that its bacteriological laboratory, under the direction of Samuel S. Epstein, has been expanded and modernized to provide more complete facilities for that type of service. Robert P. Fischelis, executive secretary and chief chemist of the Board of Pharmacy of the State of New Jersey, has been appointed a member of the New Jersey State Board of Health. The appointment comes at a time when a new State Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, similar to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, goes into effect in New Jersey. Because of the more complete control over the manufacture and distribution of drugs, devices, and cosmetics provided in the new state law, the legislature amended the State Health Act to add a pharmacist to the Board of Health, and Dr. Fischelis is the first pharmacist to hold this appointment, which is for a four-year term under the amended act. Perry A. Foote, who for the past 11 years has been professor of pharmacy at the University of Florida, Gaines635
AUSTIN M. PATTERSON
