Virgil Boekelheide

Education and academic career Boekelheide was born in Chelsea, South Dakota to a family of German ancestry. He received his bachelor's degree from Dakota Wesleyan University in 1939. He then received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1943, where he worked under the supervision of C. Frederick Koelsch. After three years as an instructor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he joined the faculty as a professor at the University of Rochester in 1946. He moved to the University of Oregon in 1960 and remained there for the rest of his research career. He retired in 1984.

Research

Boekelheide began his research career studying alkaloid natural products, but later refocused his interests on aromaticity, particularly bridged compounds known as cyclophanes.

A name reaction, the Boekelheide reaction, is named after him following his publication in 1954.

Personal life Especially in later life, Boekelheide was a patron of the arts in Eugene, Oregon, serving as president of the Eugene Ballet Society from 1988 to 1991. He and his wife had three children.