Grace Eldering

Grace Eldering (September 5, 1900 – August 31, 1988) was an American public health scientist, known for her involvement in the creation of a vaccine for whooping cough along with Loney Gordon and Pearl Kendrick.

Early life and education Grace Eldering was born in Rancher, Montana, in 1900. Eldering's parents had immigrated to the United States before she was born, with her mother having arrived from Scotland and her father from the Netherlands. She contracted and survived whooping cough when she was five, leading to her involvement in science in her adulthood. After high school Eldering attended the University of Montana for four semesters before money troubles caused her to drop out. She taught for four years saving up enough money to return to the university and obtain a Bachelor of Science. She then went on to teach English and biology at Hysham High School. She continued her education later in life and earned a Ph.D. in science in 1942 from Johns Hopkins University.

Career and research In 1928, Eldering moved to Lansing, Michigan, to volunteer at the Michigan Bureau of Laboratories. She was hired within six months to do routine bacteriologic analysis. She eventually moved to the Michigan Department of Health Laboratory in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where in 1932 she joined Pearl Kendrick and Loney Clinton Gordon to work on culturing samples of pertussis bacteria in the laboratory. Development of this pertussis vaccine was notable for including the first large-scale controlled clinical trial of a pertussis vaccine. The whole experiment was conducted after hours at work because the health department was so understaffed they could not spend time on it during normal work hours. The design and procedures for the trials were a work in progress considering neither Kendrick or Eldering had experience in creating clinical trials. In October 1935 they presented their preliminary findings at the annual American Public Health Association meeting. Many senior figures at this meeting did not want to endorse this vaccine because they felt it was not adequately tested. Eventually Kendrick and Eldering called in a consultant for their trial, Wade Hampton Frost. Frost was a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins and made two separate trips to Grand Rapids in November 1936, and in December 1937 to critique the trial and help make a plan for analyzing the data.

Eldering, alongside Kendrick and Gordon, are honored with a statue titled Adulation: The Future of Science at the Michigan State University Research Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The statue, designed by Jay Hall Carpenter, is part of the city's Community Legends Project, which seeks to build statues honoring prominent Grand Rapids figures.