Having Fun with The N ozoe Autograph Books. A Bit of Exploration and an Unexpected Learning Experience
2013; Wiley; Volume: 13; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1002/tcr.201200030
ISSN1527-8999
Autores Tópico(s)History and advancements in chemistry
ResumoIn the history of science, there is likely no more extensive and diverse single document that records and displays the personalities, interactions and travels of thousands of chemists as the Nozoe Autograph Books. 11 Of course, likely no other autograph book in the history of science is more impressive than the Royal Society Charter Book, created in 1663. This book has recorded the signatures of all Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society, beginning with Sir Isaac Newton. A reproduction of this book is available from Portland Press Ltd, Colchester, England: Fellows of the Royal Society, The Royal Society Charter Book Signatures, Royal Society Publishing, London, England, 2009. From 1953 until 1994, less than 18 months from his passing at age 94, Tetsuo Nozoe (born May 16, 1902—died April 4, 1996; Figure 1) accumulated almost 1200 pages of autographs, messages, drawings, cartoons, poems, and all sorts of written memorabilia from fellow scientists and sometimes their spouses and even families.1 These pages filled a total of nine autograph books. (A) Tetsuo Nozoe in the early 1950s. (B) Tetsuo Nozoe, several decades later. This issue of The Chemical Record presents the third installment of the Nozoe Autograph Books. Beginning in October 2012, the Nozoe Autograph Books are being published in their entirety in approximately 80-page installments in 15 consecutive issues of both the print and electronic editions of The Chemical Record. Of particular note is that the autograph pages themselves as well as the accompanying website (www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/nozoe) are open access, i.e., are available for free to all for at least for three years following their publication.2 The website is specially designed to allow both viewing and data entry. Each autograph book page is accompanied with a second page in which users can add and edit content including the names of the signees. In fact, user-provided information forms the basis of a signee index which is searchable. That is, with this index of user-supplied information—an ever-increasing supply of information—the readers are able to locate easily and quickly the page(s) on which specific individuals have signed. Collectively, the Nozoe Autograph Books serve as a wonderful heritage of friendship and collegiality. Individually, they offer insights into the humanness of so many thousands of people. Even an amateur handwriting enthusiast would discover many insights about the signees though a reading of these autograph books. These books are also fun and entertaining to peruse. But in perusing, one may well find oneself asking certain questions. Who are these people? What did they do? And in asking such questions, one becomes inspired to delve more deeply into the history of chemistry. In this article, I will take the reader on a “tour” of Nozoe's last stop on his four month European tour: Hawaii. I was curious: who did Nozoe see in Hawaii, and what were their stories? In sharing my discoveries, I hope to reveal to you how these books can be addictive as well! Thus, the Nozoe Autographs books can serve many purposes. You may simply enjoy scanning the pages and connecting with friends, colleagues and heroes. You may be able to locate your own autographs and those of your academic ancestors. You can also see and feel the progress of chemistry through the various inscriptions, chemical structures and comments. These books can be of sociological value, providing data and insights into the nature of personal interactions and connections within the scientific community. Beware! Yes, the Nozoe Autograph Books can be rather addictive. What I didn't anticipate was how much entertainment the books could be, perhaps as addictive as playing with one's iPad! The following section documents one of my explorations within the Nozoe books—with, admittedly, time for further historical side trips. I simply could not put the pages down and disconnect from my chemistry and people tour. In preparation for the publication of the Nozoe Autograph Books in The Chemical Record, I was identifying many of the autographs in the first hundred pages of the books. A number of pages caught my attention. In 1953, Nozoe experienced a four-month international tour of 120 chemistry laboratories, not all academic institutions, in Europe, continental United States, and the Territory of Hawaii. Nozoe also presented 26 lectures on his troponoid research.3 From July 19, 1953 to November 25, 1953, Nozoe obtained autographs and greetings from hundreds of chemists covering 63 pages of his autograph book. This was the beginning of his collection—his hobby—as described more fully in his autobiography3 and in the essay1 this author has written that accompanies the first installment of this entire collection. I was amused to note that the last “stop” of Nozoe's four month trip was in Hawaii. I decided to peruse his Hawaiian adventures. Nozoe received happy greetings and many “Alohas” in Hawaii. These autographs in particular drew my attention for several reasons. When we think of Hawaii, we think of beaches and volcanos and cool beverages, not chemistry. Furthermore, the memories of Pearl Harbor were likely quite vivid in 1953. Yet, the greetings were warm and inviting. The first signee I noticed was Howard J. Lucas (page 59; November 22, 1953) (Figure 2). What was Lucas, 68 years old at the time, a heavy hitter on Caltech's faculty, author of the widely regarded text Organic Chemistry4 published in 1935, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Ph.D. advisor of many eminent chemists including Bill Young and Saul Winstein, doing in quiet Hawaii in 1953? According to his biography, he was a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii in 1953 and a visiting professor at Ohio State University in 1954–1955, becoming emeritus professor at Caltech in 1955.5 Perhaps Lucas was enjoying life in Hawaii! Autographs of Howard J. Lucas and Paul J. Scheuer (from page 59 of the Nozoe Autograph books). Just below Lucas's autograph on page 59 is Paul J. Scheuer's entry (Figure 2). Born in Heilbronn, Germany, in 1915, Scheuer was unable to attend university due to the Nazi's racial policies and became a tannery apprentice.6 This pioneer and eventual leader in marine natural products—a rather reasonable occupation for a Hawaiian chemist—immigrated to the United States in 1938 from Nazi Germany, another reasonable move given his Jewish heritage. Several years later, after a B.S. degree from Northeastern University, he began graduate studies at Harvard. However, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After the war, he returned to Harvard, studied under R. B. Woodward, and received his Ph.D. in 1950. It was Hawaii immediately thereafter. Scheuer passed at the age of 87 in 2003, the author of nearly 300 publications. On page 60, the next autograph is that of Paul Scheuer's widow, Alice Scheuer, who today, must be in her 90s. The next entry on page 60 is that of Marie C[atharine] Neal, born in 1889. Neal was a botanist at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. A quick Google search revealed that the Bishop Museum is still going strong, and that Marie Neal wrote several books including In Gardens of Hawaii and In Honolulu Gardens and Hawaiian Helicindae, likely among other titles. One internet source reports that she was curator of the herbarium at the Bishop Museum. Then comes, in big, bold and very clear handwriting, “Leonora N. Bilger, Chairman” of the University of Hawaii (Figure 3A) and recipient of the American Chemical Society's Garven Award in 1953. Under her signature, in much smaller size, is her husband Earl M. Bilger. Handwriting analysts would likely comment on the relationship of the size of one's handwriting to personality qualities. Note, in Figure 3B, the famous pronouncement by John Hancock based on the size of his signature on the American Declaration of Independence. (A) Signatures of Alice Scheuer, Marie C. Neal, Leonora Bilger, Earl M. Bilger, Howard J. Lucas, Judson L. Ihrig and John E. Cavelti (from page 60 of the Nozoe Autograph Books). Note the difference in size between Leonora Bilger's signature and that of her husband Earl Bilger. Interestingly, both Paul Scheuer (Figure 1) and his wife Alice wrote with very small, even tiny letters. (B) John Hancock's bold and stylish signature on the American Declaration of Independence towers over the other American patriots. In the United States, the term “one's John Hancock” is a synonym for one's signature. After the Bilger's autographs, we find a second autograph of Howard J. Lucas, then Judson L. Ihrig (who is still alive though in poor health)7 and John E. Cavelti. According to the March 5, 1953 issue of The Campus newspaper of Allegheny College (Medville, PA), Cavelti was on sabbatical at the University of Hawaii during the 1953–1954 academic year.8 “she was indeed the principal mover in getting the chemistry building, the first three-story building on campus (actually named after her husband [also a professor of chemistry at UH]). The picture you have is that of the remodeled Bilger Hall, after 1990. (I actually played a role in the remodeling project.)”7 A portion of the University of Hawaii Manoa campus map showing Bilger Hall, Bilger Addition and Bilger Annexes. “a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. She taught at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, and from 1918–1924 at the University of Cincinnati. There she established a reputation for her work in molecular structures and cancer chemotherapy … As dean of women [at the University of Hawaii], Leonora was known as ‘Ma’ to several generations of UH coeds. She is remembered for her frequent lectures on lady-like proprieties. “She had a contentious relationship with UH president Crawford, and later, when she was removed as dean of women and returned to the chemistry department, played an active role in forcing the resignation of Crawford. This came about through the ‘special friendship’ (in Crawford's words) of Leonora and Board of Regents member Samuel N. Castle, who lived with the Bilger couple in a large Manoa home. Leonora was charged by Crawford as having passed along malicious information about Crawford to the Board. (When Castle died in 1959, he left an estate valued at 3.5 million dollars to Leonora.)”9 “Bilger Hall is named in honor of both Leonora and her husband Earl, as a UH chemistry professor.”9 The name “Samuel N. Castle” is an eminent name in Hawaii. The first Samuel N. Castle, apparently grandfather of the Samuel N. Castle mentioned immediately above, was a businessman, politician, and patriarch of a very large prominent Hawaiian family. The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation is a philanthropic organization existent still today in Hawaii.10 Nozoe attended a meeting of the Hawaiian Section of the American Chemical Society (page 61 of the Nozoe Autograph Books, not shown herein). Vernon E. Hargrave signed and noted that he was Chairman of that ACS local section. A Google search found an obituary of Hargrave in the March 23, 2003 issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Hargrave had passed on March 10, 2003 at the age of 85. He was described as “a retired Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard head chemist.” Page 62 lists various employees of the Hawaiian Sugar Planter's Association and of the Pineapple Research Institute of Hawaii. I shall omit details but note that several of the signees were well published in various areas of agricultural science. One page 63, the Bilgers appear once again (and take up the entire page). Here there is a long “very warm Hawaiian Aloha” message from Leonora Bilger. “Earl M. Bilger” has signed again, though in this instance, his “signature” was actually written in his wife Leonora's hand (Figure 5). For my own autograph book experience, I have also observed that some individuals insist on signing for their spouses. In this case, the relative sizes of Leonora's signature and Earl's signature plus Leonora's subsequent input of her husband's signature is suggestive of personality qualities. Signature of Leonora Neuffer Bilger and, apparently, her husband name, Earl M. Bilger, written in her hand (from page 63 of the Nozoe Autograph Books). Compare these “signatures” with those in Figure 3 (from page 60 of the Nozoe Autograph Books). On page 64, the Nozoe Autograph Books skip to five months later: May 15, 1954 (Figure 6). Nozoe is no longer in Hawaii, his four month adventure has long since come to an end. I would have, and could have, stopped my detailed review of these pages at this point but … but I am mesmerized by the first signature on the top of page 64. It is Riko Majima. Note the signatures of Riko Majima, the Farrington Daniels family, Y. Asahina, and Linus and Ava Pauling (from page 64 of the Nozoe Autograph Books). See text for more discussion. Riko Majima! My goodness. One of my heroes. “Once, five years ago [in 1935], Professor Masaji Tomita of Taihoku Imperial University in Formosa came to visit me. When I inquired how my former pupil, the greatly esteemed Professor Riko Majima at Sendai was, he answered, ‘Very, very old.’ I asked, ‘How old?’ ‘Fifty-seven years.’ ‘Well,’ I remarked, ‘ I am sixty-three.’ Professor Tomita bowed and replied, ‘Very, very young.’ ”14 Professor Riko Majima on his 88th (Beiju or “yone-no-iwai”) birthday, Jurakuso, Takarazuka, 1961. “Olive Miriam Bell and Farrington had been acquainted since childhood, but they had moved in different circles until Farrington met Olive on the street car in Minneapolis while on a trip home from Worcester Poly. They were married September 15, 1917, in Minneapolis, and as Olive said in her biography of Farrington, ‘The marriage was to give mutual appreciation and devotion for nearly fifty-five years. They lived truly happily ever after.’ They had four children: Farrington, Jr., Florence Mary (Mrs. J. D. Drury), Miriam Olive (Mrs. M. D. Ludwig) and Dorin Slater.”15 My examination of page 64 (Figure 6) of Nozoe's autograph book reveals Farrington Daniels autograph as well as that of Olive Bell Daniels (wife), J. W. Drury (son-in-law), Florence Daniels Drury (daughter), “JON” (perhaps a grandson), and “X (Jane)”, perhaps a much younger granddaughter. Comparison of the family members named in the National Academy's memoir helps identify the signatures in Nozoe's book. Just below the Daniels's family appears Y. Asahina (Figure 8). Obituaries of Yasuhiko Asahina appear in the journals The Lichenologist17 and in The Bryologist.18 Asahina was the co-author with Shoji Shibata of the book Chemistry of Lichen Substances (1954) and founder of the Journal of Japanese Botany. The photograph of Asahina accompanying his obituary contains Asahina's autograph, identical to that in Nozoe's book (Figure 6). On page 400 of Nozoe's autograph book is a poem written in Asahina's hand, composed by Ceng Duanbai, a poet and a well known painter, along with a translation by Dr. Haruko Kazama (reproduced in Figure 9). Asahina was not the only person to pen a poem in the Nozoe Autograph Books. I can recall seeing poems by Paul Bartlett and a limerick by John Cornforth about Arthur Birch and proudly reproduced by Birch in Nozoe's autograph book. Yasuhiko Asahina, 1881–1975. Photo from Asahina's obituary.16 A poem by Ceng Duanbai was written by the eminent botanist Yasuhiko Asahina on page 400 of the Nozoe Autograph Books, late spring, 1971. The first character in the column to the far right is “Sung Dynasty.” In the Sung Dynasty, there were at least 160,000 poets. The next three characters are the name of the poet/painter. The next five characters include the title of the poem. The remaining characters in the first column and in the subsequent three columns are the poem itself. The fifth column is Asahina's question to Nozoe. The sixth column is Asahina's autograph and to the left, the location with Asahina's age. The date is to the farthest left. The translation was provided by Dr. Haruko Kazama, Professor Emeritus, International Christian University, Tokyo. It is fully appropriate that a botanist would choose a poem involving plants as metaphors to the various types of friends. Reproduced in Figure 6, page 64 ends with a special highlight. On February 23, 1955, double-Nobelist (Chemistry in 1954, Peace in 1962) Linus Pauling and his wife Ava Helen Pauling signed the book. Interestingly, according to the Linus Pauling website Day-by-Day on the Oregon State University website, the Paulings were in Kamakura, Japan on February 23, 1955.19 Indeed, the photograph in Figure 10 was taken on that day and appears on the Oregon State University's website for the 1955 year summary.19 Another picture taken on that same day appears in Nozoe's autobiography3 with a caption citing Kamakura. This latter photograph is reproduced in Figure 11. Together, the photographs in Figures 10 and 11 illustrate the social and collegial activities of chemistry: when possible, tourism, group receptions and meals, and group photographs! Nozoe added the special touch: his autograph book that brings all of this, including chemistry, together. Linus and Ava Pauling with Professor Mitushima in front of the Great Buddha made of bronze, 13.4 meters tall and 93 tons, Kamakura, Japan. Photograph taken on February 23, 1953, the same day that the Paulings signed Nozoe's autograph book (see Figure 6). Photograph courtesy Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Libraries. Nankodo Publishing Company hosted a reception to honor Professor and Mrs. Linus Pauling's visit to Japan, February 23, 1955, Kamakura, Japan. Nozoe is seated at the far right, foreground. In between the Paulings is Dorothy U. Mizoguchi who assisted Nozoe with translations.1 Further identifications can be found in Nozoe's autograph book, page 129.3 I could not help myself but I had to glance ahead. The next signature was unintelligible, at least at first; it was clearly a German chemist-aristocrat from the message and from the boldness and “superiority” of the autograph compared to the size and “font” of the message itself (Figure 12A). This may be another example of personality gleaned from one's autograph (see Figure 3B). Something in the recesses of my memory, I cannot identify what, told me it was the autograph of Alfred Butenandt (Nobel Prize in 1939). Google was of no help. But eBay! There, on eBay was a Alfred Butenandt autographed card for sale, also shown in Figure 12B. Proof-by-eBay. (A) The autograph of Adolf Butenandt in Nozoe's book, page 65. (B) A recent auction on eBay of Adolf Butenandt's signature. Below Butenandt's signature is a lengthy entry by Masato Tanabe. Tanabe, who had a long and successful career at SRI, was known to me during my graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He appears several other times in the Nozoe Autograph Books. I skipped to page 67 where appears a message from Maurice L. Huggins, “On leave from Eastman Kodak Co.”, where he was a “Fulbright Visiting Professor, Osaka and Kyoto Universities, 1955–6” (Figure 13). Huggins may well have been one of the most under-appreciated or perhaps under-recognized scientists of the 20th Century. Let's note three of Huggins's contributions chronologically. (A) Maurice L. Huggins with Dr. Kenichi Tomita, Osaka University, 1956. Photograph courtesy of Robert Huggins. (B) A message from Huggins who was, according to G. N. Lewis,77 the first to propose the idea of hydrogen bonding (from page 67 of the Nozoe Autograph Books). “It seems to me that the most important addition to my theory of valence lies in the suggestion of what has become known as the hydrogen bond. The idea was first suggested by Dr. M. L. Huggins and was also advanced by Latimer and Rodebush …”20 Excerpt from page 1431 of the 1920 paper by Latimer and Rodebush.20 Footnote 1 on this page refers to the unpublished work of Maurice L. Huggins. Lewis's conclusion is particularly important given that the Latimer and Rodebush paper is focused on the Lewis theory of valence and that all these scientists—Lewis, Latimer, Rodebush, and Higgins—were then at the University of California, Berkeley. “In 1919 and 1920 the writer worked out a somewhat different extension of this theory [of Lewis]. For various reasons its publication has been delayed, but in a few months a paper describing it in some detail is to appear. Because of this delay, a short outline of the theory may not be out of place here.”25 Illustrations of hydrogen bonding in Maurice L. Huggins's 1922 paper in Science magazine,25 though the term “hydrogen bonding” was not used by Huggins. Compare these structures to those of Latimer and Rodebush's from their 1920 paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (Figure 14).20 Presumably Huggins is referring to his 1922 paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry24 which has the same title as the Science article.24 While Latimer and Rodebush have received credit for the hydrogen bond, to some extent to the disservice to Huggins, it must be pointed out that other workers may have preceded them both. Moore and Winmill have been credited26 with the first use of the concept of the hydrogen bond in 1912 in their comparison of the basicity of trimethylammonium hydroxide versus tetramethylammonium hydroxide.27 In 1937, Huggins reviewed a wide range of hydrogen bridging—he preferred this term over “hydrogen bonding”—in a fifty pages paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry28 and in a much longer review in Angewandte Chemie29 in 1971, so his work cannot be considered totally unknown. Nonetheless, Latimer was a famous physical chemist, so perhaps this is an example of the Matthew effect,30-32 where the already famous get more credit than those equally or perhaps ever more deserving but less well known. Latimer is a very famous chemist. I recall: my own laboratory as a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley was in Latimer Hall. “The writer ventures to predict that the most fruitful applications of hydrogen- bridge theory will be to a better understanding of the nature and behavior of complicated organic substances such as gels, proteins, starch, cellulose, sugars and other carbohydrates, chlorophyll, haemoglobin and related substances, etc.”28 “the basis for the statistical-thermodynamic theory of solutions of molecules dissimilar in size … important in the interpretation of the thermodynamic behavior of polymer solutions.”33 “As I have often stated, the theory credited to us should bear our names in the reverse order; his first publication preceded mine by a month or two. His initial contribution dealt with the lattice theory in greater detail; mine may have been more comprehensive in certain respects.”33 “Doubtless [Flory's] outstanding achievement of those years [the war years] was the development of the famous Flory-Huggins, or ‘volume fraction,’ formula for the entropy of mixing of polymer solutions. (This result was obtained essentially simultaneously by Maurice L. Huggins in the United States and by A. J. Staverman in Nazi-occupied Holland.)”34 On the other hand, perhaps the Flory-Huggins formula got more attention and reception because of the reputation of Flory. For the interested reader, relevant references are, for Huggins35, 36 and for Flory.37, 38 And third, in a 1943 article “The Structure of Fibrous Proteins” in Chemical Reviews, Huggins proposed “three ways in which a polypeptide chain can be coiled”39 with focus on intra-chain hydrogen bridges. In his authoritative review of “The Path to the Double Helix,” Olby concluded that Huggins's proposal was a precursor to Linus Pauling's model of the α-helix.40 Huggins's fertile imagination can readily be seen by his early paper on “Conjugation and the Structure of Benzene”23 which he later acknowledged was wrong.41 “About my father's middle name, he was born [1897] not very long after the end of the Civil War [1865], and a lot of people still maintained strong feelings about such things. I believe that his parents felt very strongly that the family had been loyal to the Union.”42 I then moved to page 68 and came across the messages from Ruth Alice N. Halsband and her husband Robert Halsband. Robert Halsband acknowledges that although he “is not a chemist himself, [he] is at least married to one” (Figure 16). I recall seeing a signature of a Ruth Alice N. Weil some 40 pages previously, on page 26 (Figure 17). Is this the same “Ruth Alice N.” but with different last names? The signatures are identical. And so, who are these people, and why do they appear in Tetsuo Nozoe's autograph books so frequently? Signatures of Ruth Alice N. Halsband and Robert Halsband (from page 68 of the Nozoe Autograph Books). Excerpts from page 26 (above the solid line; signatures of Ruth Alice N. Weil, two autographs; and Lawrence H. Knox46) and page 27 (below the solid line; signatures of Donald B. Denney and William von Eggers Doering43, 44) from the Nozoe Autograph Books. According to Ron Buttery (Western Regional Research Laboratories, USDA), Ruth Alice N. Weil's drawing is the Weil house, not the laboratory. On further inspection of page 26 (Figure 17), a solution begins to materialize. There appears the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation. In the recesses of my mind is a distant memory; I have seen “Hickrill” before, but where? When? Several lines below “Hickrill” is the autograph of my friend William von Eggers Doering.43, 44 I then remembered from my studies45 on Doering that he had been associated with the Hickrill Foundation. In between Ruth Alice and Bill Doering is the autograph of Lawrence H. Knox. And then another memory surfaces. I recalled a recently published paper in Chemical Heritage, a magazine published by the Chemical Hertitage Foundation, by Leon Gortler and Stephen J. Weininger about Lawrence Knox and his brother William Knox, Jr., two African-American chemists.46 Lawrence received his Ph.D. from Harvard and William from MIT. Lawrence Knox had worked with Doering at Hickrill and subsequently at Syntex in Mexico where he was awarded over 40 patents in the field of steroid chemistry. While not particularly impressive in terms of its physical size, a single one-story building in total (Figure 18B), the Hickrill laboratory produced impressive science. Quite a number of publications originated from Hickrill in the area of reaction mechanisms and structure, especially of carbenes and the structures on non-benzenoid aromatic compounds. The first47, 48 phraseology of Hückel's rule of aromaticity49 in terms of the generalization “4n+2” was pronounced by Doering and Detert in 1951.50 Actually, Doering and Detert phrased it “2+4n.”50 The full story of the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation and its chemical research is promised in a future publication51 by Gortler and Weininger who have kindly shared information with this author about Hickrill, Ruth Norman and her husbands. (A) Excerpts from perhaps the most important publication from the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation, that being the first statement of the “4n+2” rule by Doering and Detert.50 Interestingly, Doering and Detert enumerated it as the “2+4n” rule. (B) The photograph of the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation comes from a 1955 brochure, courtesy Ron Buttery. Ruth Alice Norman (1901–1971) was married twice, first (1927) to Sylvan Weil (1892 or 1893–1952) and subsequently (1954) to Robert Halsband (1914–1989). Sylvan Weil was a financier, and Halsband was a “scholar, author, authority on 18th century literary studies … [and an] adjunct professor of English at Columbia University, 1963–1967).”52 Ruth Alice received the A.B. degree from Smith College in 1922 and an A.M. degree in chemistry from Columbia University in 1943 and Ph.D. in 1946 working under the supervision of Doering (Figure 19). She was very active in philanthropy, following in a tradition set by her father, Aaron E. Norman, who had “invested in 1895 in the infant mail-order house of Sears, Roebuck in Chicago.”53 Near the end of Ruth Alice's Ph.D. studies and unaware of her wealth, Doering casually said to her, “God, how wonderful it would be to have a place with four or half a dozen postdocs where one could really try some of the more risky ideas.” She replied, ‘That sounds like a wonderful idea to me. I'll talk it over with my husband.’ ”54, 55 Thus began the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation in Katonah, New York in 1947 where Ruth Alice owned substantial property.54-56 Ruth Alice was also president of the still-existent Norman Foundation,57 a philanthropic organization started by her father. Ruth Alice Norman Weil in the laboratory, undated. Note the lack of safety glasses in this pre-1960s photograph. Photograph courtesy of Smith College Archives. Ruth Alice's first autograph in Nozoe's books was on October 13, 1953 in Katonah, NY as Ruth Alice N. Weil (Figure 17) along with others at Hickrill including Lawrence H. Knox,46 Bill and Ruth (his wife) Doering (autograph not shown in Figure 17), and Donald B. Denney. Doering served as non-resident Director of Research at Hickrill while maintaining his professorship at Columbia University, then at Yale. Knox served as the full-time Director of the Laboratory (see Figure 20).46 Denny received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and did a postdoc with Doering, then had a successful career at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for 40 years; he passed away in 2009. (Left to right) Bob Laughlin, Bill Doering, Larry Knox, Ron Buttery, and Günther Laber, at the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation, Katonah, New York. According to Buttery, the photograph was taken October 1955 in front of the house that Doering stayed in while at Hickrill. Note the bowties of Laughlin, Doering and Knox. According to Buttery, “I had been aware of Doering's and Larry Knox's papers and wrote to Doering asking about the possibility of a postdoc position. Doering gave me the choice of either Yale or Hickr
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