Charles Holmes Herty Sr. (December 4, 1867 – July 27, 1938) was an American academic, scientist, and businessman. Serving in academia as a chemistry professor to begin his career, Herty concurrently promoted collegiate athletics including creating the first varsity football team at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. His academic research gravitated towards applied chemistry where he revolutionized the turpentine industry in the United States. While serving as the president of 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 ...

, Herty became a national advocate for the nascent American chemical industry and left academia to preside over the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers' Association (SOCMA) and the Chemical Foundation. He was also instrumental in the creation of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

. Towards the end of his career, Herty's research and advocacy led to the creation of a new pulp industry in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

that utilized southern

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

trees to create newsprint.

Early life, education and family

Born in Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1867, Herty attended the

(UGA) in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society, as well as a member of the Gamma chapter of the

Kappa Alpha Order Kappa Alpha Order (), commonly known as Kappa Alpha or simply KA, is a social fraternity and a fraternal order founded in 1865 at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. As of December 2015, the Kappa Alph ...

, and graduated with a

Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an academic degree that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's d ...

(B.P.) degree in 1886. He continued his studies at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

where he earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in inorganic chemistry in 1890 under the direction of

Ira Remsen Ira Remsen (February 10, 1846 – March 4, 1927) was an American chemist who discovered the artificial sweetener saccharin along with Constantin Fahlberg. He was the second president of Johns Hopkins University. Early life Ira Remsen was bor ...

. Herty's dissertation topic was ''The Double Halides of Lead and the Alkali-Metals''. Herty married Sophie Schaller of Athens on December 23, 1895, and they had three children: Charles "Holmes", Jr., Frank Bernard and Sophia "Dolly" Dorothea. Holmes became a metallurgist and vice-president of

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

and was elected to the

United States 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 ...

. Frank worked for the Union Gas Company in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Dolly attended

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

as an undergraduate,

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

for her Masters of Science in botany and returned to Vassar to teach plant physiology.

Early academic and professional life

Upon completing his doctoral studies in 1890, Herty returned to Georgia as an assistant Chemist at the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station which was temporarily located in Athens at the time. In 1891, he became an instructor in the UGA Chemistry Department in Franklin College with a promotion to Adjunct Professor of Chemistry in 1894. Herty was granted a sabbatical leave for the 1899–1900 academic year. After securing letters of introduction from American colleagues

William McMurtrie William McMurtrie (March 10, 1851 – May 24, 1913) was an American chemist. His work helped launch the sugar beet industry in the United States. Life and career Born on a farm near Belvidere, New Jersey, the son of Abram McMurtrie and Almira Smi ...

, Remsen,

Edgar Fahs Smith Edgar Fahs Smith (May 23, 1854 – May 3, 1928) was an American scientist who is best known today for his interests in the history of chemistry. He served as provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1911 to 1920, was deeply involved in the ...

, and Francis Venable, Herty left for Europe and interacted with Walther Nernst, G. Lunge, Otto N. Witt and Alfred Werner. Herty's European trip provided the stimulus to experiment with Georgia pine trees as a source of paper after learning of the German use of tannenbäume for that same purpose. A Witt lecture on the poor processes used by the American naval stores industry and the almost certain likelihood that those processes would completely destroy the

Longleaf Pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...

(''Pinus palustris'') led Herty to study the naval store industry's use of those trees to produce timber and

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a spec ...

. After engaging in literature and field research to better understand the industry and its processes, Herty confirmed the validity of Witt's claim that the pine species would be completely destroyed. Herty also elucidated massive inefficiencies in the destructive collection processes. After conferring with forester W. W. Ashe of the North Carolina Geological Survey, Herty simplified a cup and gutter system used for many decades in France to combat both problems. The "Herty system" required less forestry expertise and labor, both necessities to ensure the method's financial success in the United States. CupGutterSystem

The initial Herty system utilized two v-shaped galvanized iron gutters to collect the resin. The simplicity of the method allowed it to be taught to the existing workforce in the turpentine industry. Herty's method yielded more resin that was also higher in quality; however, the most important success of this new method was that it lengthened the useful lifetime of the pine trees from only a few years to decades. This extended use not only saved the trees but the naval store industry as well. Herty's less destructive collection method also allowed the trees to eventually be milled as lumber. Herty subsequently moved from an iron gutter to a ceramic one, and his involvement with the Chattanooga Pottery Company in the production of the ceramic gutters eventually led to the creation of the Herty Turpentine Cup Company in 1909. In November 1901, Herty resigned from UGA due to a dispute with the chair of the department. On January 1, 1902, he joined the United States Bureau of Forestry. After continued recruitment efforts by Venable, the president of the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

(UNC) at the time, Herty finally accepted a long-offered appointment as the head of that school's chemistry department in January 1905 and served as the Smith Professor of Applied Chemistry, officially beginning his duties in July of that year. In 1908, Herty was appointed the dean of UNC's School of Applied Sciences and served in that position until 1911. During his tenure at UNC, Herty continued to receive numerous job offers from groups including UGA as the Chair of Forestry, the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Soils, the

Forest Products Laboratory The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) is the national research laboratory of the United States Forest Service, which is part of USDA. Since its opening in 1910, the FPL has provided scientific research on wood, wood products and their commercial us ...

, the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

, and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

; however, Herty remained at UNC. While on the UNC faculty, Herty was an active member of the

(ACS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and served as the president of the North Carolina section of the ACS in 1906, chairman of the Division of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry in 1909, councillor-at-large in 1909 and eventually as president of the entire ACS organization from 1915 through 1916. In that same year he joined the American Forestry Association. Herty was also active in Orange County society and business. He was a member of the county commission and president of the local school board from 1910 until 1916. As part-owner of several local businesses including the Chapel Hill Telephone Company and the Chapel Hill Bank, Herty became a well-known member of the community.

Later professional life

After serving two terms as the ACS president (1915 and 1916), Herty resigned his UNC position after being unanimously elected as the first full-time editor of the ACS publication '' Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry'' (JIEC) with an annual salary of US$6,000. Herty moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to begin his editorial duties. In addition to those duties, Herty also served as the chairman of the ACS Press and Publicity Committee beginning in 1918 which he leveraged to turn the Committee into the ACS News Service on December 9, 1918. The News Service began publishing the

Chemical & Engineering News ''Chemical & Engineering News'' (''C&EN'') is a weekly news magazine published by the American Chemical Society, providing professional and technical news and analysis in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering. Herty remained editor of the IJEC through the latter half of 1921. On October 28, 1921, a group of synthetic organic chemical manufacturers created the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers' Association (SOCMA). As part of that meeting, they also convinced Herty to become president of this new organization and his focus now shifted to the federal government in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Herty also focused on improving the relationship between academia and the organic chemical industry. In November 1926, Herty resigned from SOCMA to become an adviser to the Chemical Foundation where he would work alongside his long-time friend and collaborator, Francis P. Garvan, the president of the Foundation from 1919 to 1937. The Chemical Foundation was created in 1919 to oversee German patents seized by the United States Office of Alien Property during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

to aid the growth of the nascent American chemical industry. Garvan and Alexander Mitchell Palmer were the Alien Property Custodians for

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

and were tasked with the creation of the foundation. Another function of the foundation was the promotion of the field of chemistry and its contributions to society. This goal required the identification and funding of chemical research in academia, industry and government. It also required seeking out donors to fund research deemed important. An example of Herty's efforts occurred in 1928, when Herty worked on behalf of his alma mater, UGA, to fund a research professorship and laboratory equipment for Professor Alfred Scott to study the turpentine-derivative resene. In 1926, Herty began a professional relationship with U.S. Senator Joseph Ransdell based on their mutual interest in public health issues and

protectionism Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulatio ...

. Herty was instrumental in assisting the Senator in the four-year struggle to gain the 1930 passage of the

Ransdell Act The Ransdell Act (ch. 251, , codified as amended at , , ), reorganized, expanded and redesignated the ''Laboratory of Hygiene'' (created in 1887) as the National Institute of Health. Congress appropriated $750,000 in the bill for construction of ...

which created the

National Institute of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

from the existing Hygienic Laboratory within the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...

. In 1927, Herty stepped down from his full-time responsibilities at the Foundation to become a chemical consultant to universities, trade associations, municipal governments, and private firms located in the southern U.S.; however, he continued to work on several Foundation initiatives including the Ransdell bill for an annual retainer of US$5,000 through 1930. Herty formed the Savannah Paper and Pulp Laboratory in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

. By 1933, the plant had developed a feasible process for pulp conversion. On March 31, 1933, the first newspaper was printed using paper created with the Herty process. On September 26, 2001, the Savannah lab was named a National Historic Chemical Landmark (NHCL).

Athletics

Herty was the first faculty director of athletics at UGA. He also assumed the position of Instructor in Physical Culture in 1894 and was named Physical Director two years later. He led efforts to improve the athletic fields, establish the first campus gymnasium in the basement of Old College, create intramural and varsity baseball teams, and built tennis courts. In 1890, Herty began the UGA football program and coached the team for its inaugural season. UGA played their first game on January 30, 1892, against

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 s ...

in Athens and won, 50–0. The team lost its second game of the season to Auburn, 10–0, and finished the inaugural season with a record of 1–1. Frank "Si" Herty, the coach's cousin, served as the captain of the team. That first football field would eventually be named Herty Field in honor of the coach. The area became a parking lot in the 1940s; however, it was later converted into a greenspace in 1999. Herty was also directly involved in the creation of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA), which held its first meeting in Atlanta on December 22, 1894.

Head coaching record

Football

Death and legacy

Herty died on July 27, 1938, in

, from complications due to a series of heart attacks in the months preceding his death. Services were held at St. John's Episcopal Church in that same city. Herty's body was cremated in Macon, Georgia and his remains interred in a private ceremony at Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville. HertyField

On June 13, 1938, the Southland Paper Mills, Inc. was organized, the next year the mill site was dedicated to Herty on May 27, 1939, and the first commercial newsprint made of Southern pine started production at this facility on January 17, 1940. The St. Regis Paper Company purchased controlling interest in Southland and eventually purchased it outright in 1977, and in 1984 Champion International Corporation bought St. Regis to become the largest manufacturer of "white paper" and the second largest domestic producer of newsprint. In 2000, Herty was posthumously inducted into the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame. A year later, on September 26, 2001, his work was designated
National Historic Chemical Landmark
by the American Chemical Society and a plaque was installed at the Savannah Pulp and Paper Laboratory (now the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center) in Savannah, Georgia. Herty, Texas and Herty Elementary School in that same area are named in his honor. Numerous college buildings are named after Herty. The most significant is a two-story structure at Georgia Southern University campus, used for science courses, including geology, geography, and chemistry. Also at Georgia Southern University is the Herty Pine Forest, a tract of old-growth Southern Yellow pines used for turpentine research. There is also the science building at

Georgia College & State University Georgia College & State University (Georgia College or GC) is a public liberal arts university in Milledgeville, Georgia. The university enrolls approximately 7,000 students and is a member of the University System of Georgia and the Council ...

and the science and agriculture building at

Savannah State University ) , established = , closed = , type = Public historically black university , parent = University System of Georgia , academic_affiliation = Space-grant , endowment ...

. The Herty Building at Georgia Southern University is a two-story structure with classrooms oriented toward the sciences, particularly geology and geography. Chemistry classes were taught there for many years. Georgia Southern University is also home to Herty Forest, a tract of pine trees dedicated to the development and study of turpentine. Other namesakes include a UGA scholarship fund provided by the Alumni Association, the Herty Forest Institute in

Waycross, Georgia Waycross is the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Ware County in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 14,725 at the 2010 Census and dropped to 13,942 in the 2020 census. Waycross includes two historic districts (Downtown ...

, the

liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

'' SS Charles H. Herty'' (launched in 1943), and Herty Drive and

Herty Field Herty Field, also known as Alumni Athletic Field, was the original on-campus playing venue for football and baseball at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. It opened in the Fall of 1891 and hosting the first UGA home football gam ...

on the northwest campus of UGA. A plaque with his portrait was also hung by order of the Georgia General Assembly at the Georgia State Capitol in 1946. The Charles H. Herty Medal has been awarded annually since 1933 by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. The medal is inscribed with the words ''pro scientia et patria - Herty 1933'' which translates roughly as "for science and country". The Georgia General Assembly posthumously created the Savannah-based Herty Foundation in 1938 as a state-owned, non-profit organization focused on the pulp and paper industry. This foundation was renamed in 2006 as the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center. The center is now part of

Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hi ...