Melville Lawrence Wolfrom (April 2, 1900 – June 20, 1969) was an American chemist.

Early life, education, and career

Melville Wolfrom's grandfather Johann Lorenz Wolfrum immigrated to the United States from

Aš Aš (; german: Asch) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Dolní Paseky, Doubrava (Aš), Doubrava, Horní Paseky, Kopaniny (Aš), Kopaniny, ...

in 1854, and was of

Sudeten German German Bohemians (german: Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part ...

descent. His son Friedrich (Frederick) Wolfrum married Maria Louisa Sutter. Melville Wolfrom was born on April 2, 1900, the youngest of nine children. His father died when Melville was seven years old. Three of his brothers acquired a patent for a horse harness snap, and as a teen, Melville helped manufacture them out of the family home. He graduated from Ohio's Bellevue High School in 1917 as salutatorian and began working for the

National Carbon Company The National Carbon Company was founded in 1886 by the former Brush Electric Company executive W. H. Lawrence, in association with Myron T. Herrick, James Parmelee, and Webb Hayes, son of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, in Cleveland, Ohio. ...

. A year later, Wolfrom enrolled at Western Reserve University. He dropped out of the university and the

Students' Army Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

after November 1918. In 1919, Wolfrom returned to school at

Washington Square College The New York University College of Arts & Science (CAS) is the primary liberal arts college of New York University (NYU). The school is located near Gould Plaza next to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Stern School of Busines ...

, only to drop out a second time. He was admitted to

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1920. Upon graduation in 1924, Wolfrom turned to graduate school at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, where he earned a master's and doctoral degree in 1925 and 1927, respectively. Wolfrom's postdoctoral studies were funded by the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

. Wolfrom worked with

Claude Hudson Claude Silbert Hudson (January 26, 1881 – December 27, 1952) was an American chemist who is best known for his work in the area of carbohydrate chemistry. He is also the namesake of the Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry given ...

and

Phoebus Levene Phoebus Aaron Theodore Levene (25 February 1869 – 6 September 1940) was a Russian born American biochemist who studied the structure and function of nucleic acids. He characterized the different forms of nucleic acid, DNA from RNA, and fo ...

before returning to Ohio State in 1928.Alt URL
/ref> Wolfrom formally joined the OSU faculty in 1929 as an instructor. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1930, followed by an associate professorship in 1936. Wolfrom was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1939, and attained full professorship in 1940. In 1950, Wolfrom became the first member of OSU's Department of Chemistry faculty to be elected to membership within the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. He was followed by

Melvin Spencer Newman Melvin Spencer Newman (March 10, 1908 – May 30, 1993) was an American chemist, Ohio State University professor, best known for inventing the Newman projection. Newman was born in New York City in a Jewish family, the youngest of Mae (née P ...

in 1956. Wolfrom was appointed to a Regents' Professorship in 1965.

Personal life and legacy

Wolfrom married Agnes Louise Thompson on June 1, 1926. The couple had five children. Frederick died in infancy, and was followed by Eva Magdalena, twins Anne Marie and Betty Jane, and Carl Thompson. Melville Wolfrom died of a heart attack on June 20, 1969 at Ohio State University Hospital. The Melville L. Wolfrom Award given by the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

is named for him. The Newman and Wolfrom Laboratory of Chemistry at Ohio State University was named for Wolfrom and Melvin Spencer Newman on November 3, 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfrom, Melville 1900 births 1969 deaths People from Bellevue, Ohio 20th-century American chemists Scientists from Ohio Case Western Reserve University alumni Ohio State University alumni Ohio State University faculty New York University alumni American people of German descent People of Sudeten German descent Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences