Biography
I am the second son of midwestern parents, both of whom graduated from The Ohio State University. I was born in Boston, MA in 1943 and received my grade school education in Atlantic Beach, Florida, a sleepy beach town east of Jacksonville. A family move to Westport, CT at the beginning of middle school transported me to competitive schools, the Yankees, the NY Times, and proximity to the big city. A part-time job in a camera store exposed me to photography. Other interests included singing and debate. Rather than follow my brother to an Ivy League school (Princeton) I enrolled at Amherst College in September 1961.
In 1961 Amherst was an all-male college with ca. 1,000 students and a required freshman curriculum that included calculus and physics and lots of writing, great books, and history. It was the perfect curriculum for me as I had no special talents and liked any subject that was taught well. I did not settle on a major until the end of junior year and managed to take the senior seminar in American Studies while writing a senior thesis in chemistry. My choice of chemistry as a major was influenced by a young chemistry professor with whom I remain in contact 58 years after taking his organic chemistry class. Membership in a singing group provided opportunities for paid Spring trips to Florida, an appearance in Carnegie Hall, and weekend trips around New England. On one of these trips I had a blind date with my future wife, Susan Rice.
Selection of Rochester for graduate school was influenced by a visit to its chemistry department during the spring of my senior year. While at Rochester, I became fascinated with the mechanisms of chemical reactions and discovered my passion for laboratory research. I made rapid progress on several research projects and also enjoyed teaching undergraduate students as a TA. Upon completing my Ph.D. degree requirements, I moved to NYC for a postdoctoral appointment at Columbia University in January 1968. A few months later, Susan and I were married and she joined me for an exciting year in NYC.
My search for an academic position led to an offer from Northwestern. We arrived in Evanston in August, 1969, the month that I turned 26. Since both my B.S. and Ph.D. advisors had studied at Northwestern, this seemed to be a suitable destination. I was able to attract several capable and hard-working undergraduate and graduate research students to help establish my laboratory. I also began teaching organic chemistry to undergraduates and advanced organic courses to graduate students, something I enjoyed doing virtually every year until retiring from teaching in 2015. Working with a small group of research students and postdocs, my laboratory remained continuously funded and productive until my last postdocs departed in 2017. The research of these students has been the subject of over 250 journal articles and reviews. Along the way I have served a term as Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and on numerous university and college committees. I was president of the Photochemical Society and on the editorial board of several journals; and received awards both for teaching and research.
Susan and I have lived in Evanston for over 50 years, most of those in one house in NE Evanston. We have two children and two grandchildren, all of whom live within a 3 hour’s drive of Evanston. Last summer we moved to Westminster Place, Evanston. I currently am serving as a member of the Westminster Place Resident Advisory Council.