Charles C. Price

Charles C. Price (July 13, 1913 - February 11, 2001) was an American chemist and president of the American Chemical Society. He taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Pennsylvania.

He was known as a pioneer of polymer science. He co-organized the first Reaction Mechanisms Conference in 1946. He was also a founding co-editor of the Journal of Polymer Science in 1946. He studied polymerization processes as part of the U.S. synthetic rubber program during World War II and invented and patented polyether polyurethane foam rubber. He also contributed to the detection of chemical weapons, the develop of chloroquine as a treatment for malaria, and treatments for cancer.

In 1952 Price won the Democratic nomination to Congress for Indiana's 3rd congressional district. He was an active Quaker. As a long-term member of the United World Federalists, he campaigned for disarmament and co-operative world government through a strengthened United Nations. One of his interests was yacht racing, for which he won numerous awards.

Education Charles Coale Price III was born on July 13, 1913, to Thornton Walton Price, a mechanical engineer, and Helen Marot Farley, in Passaic, New Jersey. His parents were Quakers who had married in the Swarthmore Friends Meeting. Charles was the first of five children. At age six, his right hand was blown off in an accident with a box of detonators for dynamite.

Price attended Swarthmore College, earning a Bachelor's degree in chemistry with high honors, Phi Beta Kappa in 1934. He excelled in sports and was captain of the varsity lacrosse team.

Price received his Masters (1935) and Ph.D. (1936) from Harvard University, where he worked with Louis Fieser. working with Roger Adams on the structure of gossypol. His interest in molecular bonding and the mechanisms of chemical reactions underlies much of his career. He worked on the synthesis of 4,7-dichloroquinoline and tested chloroquine as a possible substitute for quinine, which was no longer available for the treatment of malaria. He studied polymers and polymerization processes involved in the production of synthetic rubber as part of the U.S. synthetic rubber program, which sought alternative sources to unavailable natural rubber.

University of Notre Dame From 1946 to 1954, Price was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame, Price and Paul Doughty Bartlett organized the first Conference on Organic Reaction Mechanisms, held September 3, 1946. This conference marks the point at which American physical organic chemists in the United States began to identify themselves as members of a field.

Price was a founding co-editor of the Journal of Polymer Science in 1946, with Paul M. Doty and Herman Francis Mark. He also served on the editorial board of Organic Syntheses from 1946 to 1954.

In 1950, Price campaigned at the Indiana Democratic Convention for the Democratic nomination to the U. S. Senate, in a three-way contest with Andrew Jacobs and winner Alexander M. Campbell. In 1952 Price won the Democratic nomination to Congress for Indiana's 3rd congressional district. He came second in the election to the Republican candidate Shepard J. Crumpacker Jr.

"Although I do not underestimate the contributions that science can continue to make to our civilization, I am convinced that scientific progress is far ahead of political progress. To solve our present crisis, precipitated by technical developments which have made all nations neighbors in the world community, we must achieve political progress by building an effective political organization at the world level." Charles C. Price, 1952 He continued to work in the area of polymers, and built upon his previous work with chemical warfare and disease treatment, investigating the area of cancer treatment. In 1962, he spent several months in Japan with his family, teaching at Osaka University and Kyoto University as a Fulbright Professor. Price was instrumental in helping CHOC to obtain funding from John C. Haas, Arnold Beckman, and others. In 1992, CHOC was renamed the Chemical Heritage Foundation and in 2018, the Science History Institute. The Charles C. Price Fellowship for postdoctoral students studying the history of science and technology was first awarded by the institution in 1999.

Mary Elma (White) Price died of cancer in 1982, survived by her husband and their five children: Patricia (1938-), Susanne (1940-), Sarah (1944-), Judith (1946-) and Charles Coale IV (1948-). Charles Price remarried in 1983, to Anne Parker Gill. He died on February 11, 2001. He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution. As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

Price was Chairman of the Federation of American Scientists from 1956 to 1957. He served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 1964 to 1969, and served on its executive committee from 1966 to 1969. He served on the board of the Committee on a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), and spoke before U.S. Government committees on the Prohibition of Chemical and Biological Weapons. the American Friends Service Committee, and as co-chairman of the Global Interdependence Center in Philadelphia in the 1980s.

He encouraged scientists and government institutions to work together in support of disarmament and to seek peaceful solutions to economic, political, and social challenges throughout the world.

Sailing Price was a long-term member of the Cruising Club of America, winning a number of trophies in his racing yachts Proton (a Gulfstar 41) When he moved from South Bend, Indiana to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1954, he sailed his yacht from Lake Michigan to the Chesapeake Bay, a three-month trip. First he participated in a 330-mile race from Chicago to Mackinac Island. Then he went through the Great Lakes to the canal at Buffalo, New York. After reaching the coast, he sailed along the coastline to Annapolis, Maryland.

Between 1960 and 1970, Price competed six times in the Bermuda Race from Newport to Bermuda. In 1970, he sailed from Bermuda to the Isle of Wight, England in his 45-foot sailboat, to compete in the Cowes Week regatta. Other competitors in the races at Cowes Week included Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Prime Minister Edward Heath. 1973, Charles Lathrop Parsons Award for outstanding public service, American Chemical Society 1966, Chemical Pioneer Award, American Institute of Chemists 1958, Department of the Army Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service, the second highest award granted by the Army to civilian personnel 1950, Honorary Degree, Swarthmore College 1946, Award in Pure Chemistry, American Chemical Society, "to the most promising American chemist under 36 years of age"