Dr. Norman D. Scott An Appreciation of A Scholar, Scientist and Dedicated Father by Donald M. Scott his son Dr. Norman D. Scott was probably best known as a research chemist who spent most of his career with E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company. He earned 50 patents for his work in organic chemistry. But he was also a scholar who earned a Rhodes Scholarship, a combat veteran of World War I and a dedicated husband and father This remembrance is written for his many grandchildren and their heirs who did not have the privilege to know him personally since he died in 1948 at the age of only 54. Norman Dunshee Scott was born in Maxwell, Iowa on January 6,1894. His father, Dr. Elisha Challen Scott, was listed on his birth certificate as the attending physician. His mother was Josepha Dollie Dunshee Scott who was affectionately known as Josie to her friends. She was the daughter of Norman Dunshee who was a Professor of Ancient languages at Drake University in Des Moines Iowa until his death in 1888. It was an easy matter to select the name for this new baby since the grandfather was greatly admired by both the mother and father. The story of Norman Dunshee was recorded in a biography which served as an inspiration for this book. Josie Dunshee was on the teaching staff at Oskaloosa College in Iowa teaching classes in art and modern languages when she met Elisha Scott who was one of her students. They were married in 1884. Norman D. Scott was the first son but the fifth child born to Elisha and Josie. By this time she was 37 years old and she probably concluded that enough is enough. Josie was an accomplished poet and many of her poems were published in a book entitled "Songs of the Morning Land" which was published posthumously after her untimely death in 1903. Young Norman D. was not quite nine years old when his mother died and this affected him greatly as shown in some of his later letters. Norman's older sisters were named Ada Carlista born in 1886, Emma Jessie born in 1888, Inez Helene born in 1889 and Lois Josepha born in 1892.Inez married a minister and moved to Kentucky. She and her husband came to visit us in later years when we were living on a farm in Western New York. I do not have any clear recollection of Ada except that she was a missionary who worked in Japan and was there during World War I. I was told that Ada came to take care of me when I was an infant and my older brother Norman was very ill. Mostly I remember my aunts Emma and Lois who came to visit us frequently and sent us carefully selected books each year at Christmas. Lois spent much of her life taking care of her sister Emma after Emma came down with Polio and was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Both Emma and Lois were associated with Drake University all of their lives. Emma wrote the school song in 1925. It was probably only natural that the ladies of this household were very interested in education. On her mother's side Josie could trace her ancestors back to the clan of Elisha Parmele of Connecticut a graduate of William and Mary class of 1778. It also became obvious at an early age that Norman was a natural scholar. It was the custom of the day that all family members would sacrifice to see that the selected member of the family would get every opportunity to further their education and in this case Norman got some money, much encouragement and a lot of supervision. Money was very scarce in Dr. Elisha Scott's household and seemed to be a very distant second priority to the study of poetry and languages. Norman was required to go door to door selling a patent medicine developed by his father. This was apparently not one of the happier memories of his childhood but it did serve as an inspiration to go on to bigger things. He never mentioned this part of his childhood to me but my mother mentioned several times that this had happened to Norman whereas her father was a "Real Doctor". In any case most of his memories of his early years were very happy ones and his grandmother helped to take the place of his mother after his mother's death. Many of the records that I found of his early years came from his ap plication for a Rhodes Scholarship that covered the period from his high school day s through his Junior Year at Drake University. Norman attended public school in Maxwell and then when the family moved to Des Moines in 1904 he went on to Grant school in Des Moines and later West Des Moines High school. His transcript from his high school days shows he was a serious scholar. Life was generally good at the big house at 1332 26 St. which has now been transformed into part of Drake University. II It is not clear exactly when Norman decided to compete for the Rhodes Scholarship but his plans were obviously in place early in his days at Drake. It might be of interest to see how he went about this in case any of his descendants have similar ambitions. A Rhodes Scholar is selected to study on a scholarship at Oxford University in England. The usual term is for two years. These scholarships were established by Sir Cecil Rhodes, who had made a fortune in diamond mines in South Africa, and spent his later years alternating between the diamond mines and Oxford University. He wanted to establish a link between this great university and the rest of the British Empire so many of the scholarships were to be awarded to countries that were part of the British Empire. He then made another provision that scholarships were to be awarded to the United States which at that time (1904) were to be provided at a rate of two scholarships for each state for every three years. Each state would provide a preliminary screening committee and the final selection would come from a national selection board. What this meant was that every college and university in a state would select one candidate and then the state committee would select one candidate if they had a quota for that year. Competition was meant to be fierce. Cecil Rhodes was looking for men who would be leaders in their communities so he asked for the selection committees to search for evidence of future leaders. Such activities as athletics and participation in extracurricular activities were to be considered. Norman decided early that all candidates would have these qualifications and he would have to look for a tiebreaker that would give him the edge. He found that edge in the study of the Greek language which he pursued for three years at Drake. This was not really a surprising choice for him since his grandfather Norman Dunshee had taught Greek for so many years. Norman considered himself to be fairly good athlete and he proved this at Drake. He was captain of his freshman pushball team and also played guard on the Drake Football team from 1912 to 1914. His real sport was track and he participated as a member of the Drake four mile relay team in 1915 winning a track "D" for his efforts. He was proud of his coaches summary on his scholarship application that he was a "rugged Christian gentleman." To round out his other activities he was a member of the Drake debating team and the editor in chief of the Drake newspaper the Delphic. It was his study of Greek though that proved to be the tiebreaker as all the other applicants from Iowa had equally impressive qualifications in all other regards. There should be some lessons here that can be applied. Make a long term plan and go about developing the necessary qualifications. Norman graduated from Drake and was notified of his acceptance as a Rhodes scholar in the Spring of 1916 and he made plans to be at Oxford in October. He wrote letters home every week after he began the train ride to New York and then the boat trip to England. Remember that this was wartime England and it was a relief to make the Atlantic crossing without encountering German submarines. All of the other American Rhodes scholars were on the same ship and they were obviously relieved to arrive in England and to then be taken by train to Oxford. He now was referred to as Scott of Iowa. He probably could not have chosen a worse time to arrive in England. Early in 1916, England had decided that she would be the force that would have to defeat Germany in the great war that had been raging in France since the summer of 1914. France had taken tremendous casualties and the war was at a stalemate. British General Haig launched an offensive at the battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. The most immediate result was that it produced over 60,000 British casualties on July 1st. of that year. This was the heaviest one day loss that a British army had ever suffered. Before the offensive was called off in November because of bad weather there were more than 400,000 British casualties. By October of 1916 the London hospitals were filled with the wounded and almost every family had some loss. England was pressing for the U.S. to enter the war. What a time for Norman to arrive to begin his studies! His letters home at this time were very similar with each one pleading for news from home including The Drake football scores. The Oxford University facilities were obviously overwhelming with the collection of Chemistry books beyond anything he could imagine and Norman spent much time discussing this. He was assigned to Merton college and began to prepare for the exams he would take later to qualify for further study. Chemistry and Religion were the two major subjects that were to be covered and he had many books to read before he would be ready. There were frequent side trips to London to visit the museums and the theater which was also expected of Rhodes scholars. The subject of money was also covered in every letter with a strict accounting for every Pence. Apparently many of the Rhodes scholars came from wealthy families so that the money that came from the scholarship was only incidental but if you were not so fortunate you could easily go into debt and this could end your scholarship. But above all else there was the question of the war and what would be the American involvement. In the early letters there was hope that President Wilson would be able to negotiate an armistice by late 1916 or early 1917. American direct involvement did not seem like a possibility since no one in Europe seemed to know what they were fighting for and there was very little sentiment in the U.S.A. for getting involved. There was a hospital near Merton college where the wounded would be brought in every evening just about the time Norman was planning to take his daily exercise walk. This obvious attempt to hide the results of the war from the public was very disturbing and was mentioned on several occasions. Norman was going through some deep soul searching. He had been brought up in a deeply religious family and he did not believe that the war was right. On the other hand if the U.S. became involved he knew he would have to enlist. This was not the best situation when you are trying to study for exams. Events moved quickly that Fall. One of the highlights was a Thanksgiving football game between the American Rhodes scholars who were upper classman and the new class that had just arrived. Many of the new students were strong believers in prohibition which was a major issue in the U.S. at the time. The upper classmen had many rituals that all involved drinking beer. This was to be a big game. The upper classmen prevailed. The beer drinking continued. A whole letter was dedicated to an account of the game. I have never had any doubt where my interest in sports in general and football in particular originated. Oxford always scheduled a six weeks break at Christmas. Tradition usually called for a trip to the Continent but that did not seem like a wise choice in 1916. Norman briefly considered a trip home to Iowa but this would mean risking the ten day crossing of the Atlantic twice and he really could not afford the expense. The mere fact that he considered the trip gives some indication of how homesick he had become. When it was pointed out that each student would have to spend at least four hours each day reading the assigned books just to be barely ready for the January exams, Norman decided to spend the time in London. A family friend named Leslie Morgan provided a place to stay and also served as a tour guide in London. Many hours were spent with a YMCA group providing refreshments for soldiers of many nationalities who were on leave. Their stories gave him a good appreciation of what the war was like in each of the regions where it was in progress. The exams were completed in January of 1917 and he received high honors so in this regard things were looking up. Unfortunately many other problems developed. The English food which was considered bad by Americans in the best of times now got even worse. He reported that the choice was between not eating and starving or eating and getting sick. The meatless days turned into meatless weeks relieved only by an occasional mystery stew. I recall my father telling me a story about these times later when I was studying Shakespeare in high school. One night at supper one of students dug into the stew and pulled out a rabbit skull. He held it up and began the oration, "alas poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio." Maybe it was funnier at the time. The rumors were that Oxford might have to close for the duration of the war. The weather turned very bad with rain and fog that was the worst in the memory of long time residents. When the fog would come in suddenly buses would stop running and passengers would be dropped off to fend for themselves. Norman made plans to leave Oxford in the Spring and to spend a year working at a mission in India followed by a trip around the world through Iowa and back to Oxford some time later. He submitted his application for this venture and it was accepted. By mid March the weather began to improve considerably and the English countryside was beautiful. Norman described this in detail in a letter home and then concluded that this good weather would also mean the fighting would begin again in Europe in what was predicted to be the greatest clash in history. In the meanwhile President Wilson, fresh from election victory, demanded that each of the warring parties submit conditions they would accept for an armistice. America would then act as an arbitrator and bring the war to a close. Wilson's speech got much attention in the British press. Once again the Americans at Oxford had hope that this would be the end of the war. In response Germany announced they were going to unrestricted submarine warfare and almost immediately several American ships were sunk. On April 6, 1917 the U.S. declared that a state of war existed with Germany. Norman's plans took yet another turn. Norman wrote a letter home that summarized the world situation better than any account I had seen elsewhere. He stated that could see why the U.S. had to take this approach but that Wilson had been right in trying to end the war the way he did. There were 11 countries fighting on the allied side with each one having there own agenda. England wanted to preserve the empire and many of the countries of the Empire wanted independence from England. France wanted to drive Germany out of France and punish them so that they could never again invade France. Germany was convinced it was winning and was following a strategy of driving one of the allies at a time out of the war. This had worked with Serbia, Belgium and Italy. Russia would follow in 1917. Who was the U.S.A. to dictate terms when they had no army or navy and only the argument against an immoral war to back there position. Many lessons for history were included in that letter but only a few would read it. III No records seem to be available as to exactly what happened next but in a letter home a year later he recalled how surprised the family looked when he walked in the door of the family home in Des Moines in May of 1917. He had come home to enlist and all his doubts and questions had been resolved. His actual enlistment records show that he was sworn in at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri on December 7, 1917 for the duration of the emergency. I believe he had spent the summer in St. Louis completing some other courses and deciding on the best way to serve. The army was being flooded with both enlistees and conscripts at this time so it was fortunate that someone noticed that his profession was listed as a Chemist. It so happened that a new unit was being formed in the U.S. army that would soon be designated as the 1st Gas Regiment. This unit served with distinction throughout the war and then was abandoned soon after the Armistice as gas warfare was later outlawed by the Geneva Convention. Norman stayed at Jefferson Barracks until about the end of January 1918.The food was good, at least compared to Oxford, and he began to gain some weight. The ladies at the Presbyterian House S.S. entertained the soldiers for New Years eve so life was looking up once again. He was next transferred to Fort Myer Virginia to begin processing for shipment to France. His letters tell of meeting a young lady named Avonelle Crockett who worked at the Congressional Library and who was somehow related to the folks back in Iowa. They had one date for dinner and the movies and Norman noted that this date cost him $5.00. Considering that his pay at the time was $30.00 a day once a month he was now broke again. Other trips to visit the U.S. Senate and to tour Washington would have to suffice. On one visit to the Senate he was given VIP treatment even though he was now wearing his new hobnailed shoes which had been issued as trench shoes and the army had taken away all his other shoes. Avonelle's father was Secretary of the U.S. Senate and when Norman and a Corporal Fox went to the Senate they were directed to the gallery by a guard. Norman asked to see the Secretary and was shown into his office. It was only 15 minutes before the Senate was due to start but the Secretary acted like he had nothing to do but show them around. He showed them the room where the President came to sign bills on the same table that Lincoln used. It must have been a beautiful room because Norman described it in great detail with accounts of the mirrors and chandeliers. After that the Secretary said he would like to have them meet the President of the Senate. He left for a moment and then returned to escort them into the office of vice President Marshall. Norman said his hobnailed boots made quite a racket on the polished wood floors. Vice President Marshall shook hands and Mr. Crockett commented, "I see you have your trench shoes on yet." Norman replied that he didn't have much choice. Marshall said he thought they were better than John Crockett's for the Washington Winter. Marshall asked them to come back when he would have more time to talk. After this they were escorted up to the reserved gallery and given seats where they could see all that was going on. Norman noted several Lieutenants in the general public gallery. His friend Corporal Fox was duly impressed. The brief stay in Washington was one highlight of his army career. He reported that he went into an ice cream parlor and was startled to see himself in uniform. We have a picture from that time with his wavy hair and his new uniform to show he was feeling good. About that time he received a letter from his father advising that he should not fear the death of his body. Good old dad always seemed to be there when you needed someone to cheer you down. After he arrived in France he wrote that he had they had left Ft. Myer on Monday afternoon February 25th. The crossing was the roughest he had yet encountered and they were sleeping in tiers of what had at one time been 2nd, class accommodations. He went on to mention the name of the ship and thus encountered his first experience with censors. After the Armistice all censorship was lifted and he was able to go back and fill in many of the details that were missing from his letters from March thru November. I will use the uncensored version. Most American troops were landing in Brest, France before going across France by train to the encampments just behind the front lines. Norman really liked the French people he met. They were very grateful for the American presence and were as helpful as they could be under the circumstances. In the towns the only men were old or wounded and the women were dressed in black. He felt more than ever that he was here on a worthy cause. In the course of one year he had been transformed from a pacifist to an eager member of Company C of the first Gas Regiment. The train ride across France took almost three days which means they came round about and slow which gave him a good chance to view the country. He did not speak French at that time but soon learned enough to get by in the villages. He reported that the people were kind and patient with our little smattering of their language. He reported that the country had been drained of men and most so of young women who had gone to work in factories. At night they slept in buildings where Caesar camped and in buildings that Napoleon finished and used. When they arrived at Langres that completed the train ride and from there they walked to Humes where they were billeted for about six weeks. The 1st. gas regiment was divided into six Companies designated A thru F. Norman was with Company C through all of combat although he would sometime be on detached duty at regiment headquarters. He was selected for meteorology by a Corporal Rupert who used to be in charge of the weather station at Yellowstone Park. The main duty was to predict the wind direction and velocity. Very important information if you intend to launch a gas attack with mortars. Norman was credited with taking part in a series of battles starting on the 8th of July. He did not think his work was particularly dangerous but it was very hard labor because they had to carry Stokes Mortars, projectors and the projectiles into position and then wait for favorable wind. The first major battle that was primarily an American show was at St. Mihuel. It was considered an overwhelming victory and confirmed the decision of General Pershing to only have the American Expeditionary Force fight as a separate army and not under the command of the British or French. Norman's letters after that battle were ecstatic. He was sure the war would soon be over. Several more months of hard fighting followed with Company C directly supporting the new American army that had been formed for the Meusse Argonne offensive than went from late September to the Armistice on November 11th. By this time the French salient at Verdun had at last been relieved. Norman had been promoted to PFC and detailed as Battalion meteorologist on September 3rd so he was slightly removed from the immediate action. He was allowed to go on several "shows" as they were called and was finally allowed to return to his beloved Company C shortly before the armistice. Can this be the same guy who was preaching against war only a little over a year earlier? Several of the men in Company C were college graduates or were in college when they were called to active duty. Norman mentions a soldier named May who was a graduate of Minnesota with a 5 year course in Chemical Engineering. Another was a man named Hastings who thought he had signed up as a Railroad Engineer and was later switched to the Gas Regiment. A man named Oliver was a Scotchman boiler maker from Pennsylvania. These three seemed to his best friends. Life did not seem to be too hard as they got to stay in one place long enough to fix up the barn or abandoned house they were sleeping in to be fairly satisfactory. He did comment that if he ever got to sleep in a bed again, he would probably put the mattress on top of him or else sleep on the floor. In one letter home he said he was at last going to get his hair cut very short so it would be easier to find the "cooties" that seemed to like to live in your hair. He was going to risk this haircut now that he was "safely" away from his sister Lois who had threatened to pull his ears if he ever cut off his wavy hair. Lois used to call him "piggy doggie" when he was little and he now said I guess you meant "schwine hund". Then came one more letter from good old dad wondering if he were not going to be promoted and be able to send more money home. The golf game wasn't as good since they were not maintaining the Des Moines course to the prewar status. He had heard that some professional baseball players were to be called up as officers so what was wrong with Norman. In reply he pointed out that his promotion to PFC was in reward for honorable service and with the extra $3.00 for PFC plus $3.00 for overseas service he was now making $36.00 a month. He might be able to send home as much as $30.00 per month but he would like to save some for expenses if he got back to Oxford or if he should happen to get some leave. Remember how your grandchildren may judge you even if your children tolerate you. After the armistice in November Company C counted their blessings. Norman thought they were the luckiest unit in the army . They had only two casualties while adjacent units were being decimated. The two casualties were judged by Norman to be of the finest Lieutenants in the army. Plans were under way for the massive use of gas by the American army but the infantry was pleading with them not to use too much because they would have to advance through it. To this day the U.S. Government is trying to find ways to dispose of the surplus mustard gas stored around the country from that production line 80 years ago. By late November Norman had requested leave in Paris but that seemed to get lost along with most of his other requests. Besides, he noted, most of the celebrating was over. He did get to see President Wilson pass by on his way to the Paris peace conference but that was one of the few highlights of what was turning out to be a big letdown. By mid December Norman got the idea that he could request to be discharged in Europe and maybe then get back to Oxford in January for the start of the Spring term. He put in his request and it was immediately approved. This is the only request that he could ever remember being approved but it was not quite what he expected. He was approved for discharge in Europe when the army decided it would be appropriate and in the meantime he would forfeit all rights for sea transportation back to the United States. By late January he was still in France, all his friends had gone home and he was convinced he had made a big mistake. He was finally discharged at Winchester England on15 February 1919 with an Honorable Discharge, $60.00 and one more reminder that he had forfeited his right to sea transportation back to the U.S. The U.S. Government had quickly reverted back to a peacetime mindset. President Wilson would soon return from Europe to find no support for the League of Nations by the U.S. Congress. Europe was in complete disarray and the stage was set for World War II as soon as a new generation of young men could reach a age for military service. Norman Scott would try to pick up the pieces and go on with his life. IV Unfortunately the letters that Norman had been writing home each week seem to cease at this time so I have to rely on other evidence for the record. If anyone else knows of letters home or better yet has copies, we can make the account of Norman's return to Oxford more complete. A lot more than a year of his life had been lost by his army experience. He mentioned years later that he was much more mature and determined to make up for lost time. His study of chemistry was highlighted by research work that the Board of the Faculty of Merton College judged to be of a "High Standard of Merit" and he was awarded a degree of Bachelor of Science Degree from Merton College of The University of Oxford dated the 1st of November 1921. Part of his research work involved study at Grenoble in France and there is also indication that his work had come to the attention of James Conant who at the time was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Harvard. Some information indicates that by 1920 he was already working with James Conant and teaching courses at Harvard but in any case his degree from Oxford was dated 1921. James Conant was to go on to become a full Professor and then later the President of Harvard. He and Norman were to become lifelong friends. A textbook on Chemistry written by Conant in 1927 credits Dr. Norman Dunshee Scott with editing the proofs and making many valuable suggestions. Norman apparently planned to stay at Harvard to complete his graduate studies but he was advised of A Swedish Professor named The Svedberg who was teaching and doing research work at the University of Wisconsin. Svedberg was to later win a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1926. Norman applied and was accepted to study at Wisconsin under The Svedberg beginning in the Fall of 1922. Norman enjoyed life at Wisconsin. The work was challenging and exciting and there were many pretty girls to date. One of those he dated was Mabel Jobse but she was several years his junior and much more interested in the younger men. And then he met Myrtle Jobse who was Mabel's older sister. Now his life really changed. Myrtle was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, class of 1918, with a degree in Home Economics. She had gone on to teach Physics and General Science at the high school in Grafton, Wisconsin. She returned to her home in Milwaukee the next year to take of her mother who was very ill. In 1921 she returned to the U. of Wisconsin and took a job as Social Secretary at the Presbyterian House. She had noticed Norman and later admitted she would like to get to know him better but they were both dating other people. Myrtle had gone with a man named Cleon Balch since her high school days in Milwaukee and later at the U. of Wisconsin. She had assumed they would be married some day but then Cleon went off to World War I and when he returned he was a very different man. They remained friends throughout their lives. On one occasion Myrtle said she had to deliver a coffee pot to a party they were planning across Lake Mendota on the U. of W. campus .Norman had a canoe and offered to take her across so I guess this is how the romance got started. They were married early in 1923 at Myrtle's family home in Milwaukee and Myrtle assumed she would continue to live the rest of her life in Wisconsin where Norman was both teaching and studying. They were living in a very small apartment in Madison when Norman got an offer to rejoin Conant at Harvard. He immediately made plans to go back to Cambridge with his new bride who was beginning to realize she did not know this man very well. They finally located a place to stay in Felton Hall which was an old building in the 18th century and was now converted to a rooming house of sorts for older students at Harvard. It has since been demolished but it still shows on maps of the Harvard campus from the 1923 era. The room fee was $50.00 per month which just about matched Norman's salary so the extra fee of $50.00 each for board was out of the question. And then my sister Amy came along. A little six pound baby was just what they needed. The top dresser drawer would have to serve as a crib but Myrtle was loosing weight and was not sure what to do next. Maybe she would have to return home to live with her parents until Norman completed his Ph.D. which was pending at Wisconsin. Just in the nick of time a letter came from Dr. Scott in Des Moines informing them that Norman should pay back the $850.00 that he had borrowed from his sister Lois to pay his tuition at Harvard during his earlier stay. This was the first that Myrtle had heard of this debt and she now realized it was going to be an interesting life. Lois was satisfied with just interest payments but good old Dr. Scott wanted a full refund. A teaching position in chemistry came available at Middlebury College in Middlebury Vermont for early in 1924. Norman decided to take it. A letter from Middlebury College dated January 21, 1925 asked him to stay on for another year with the position of Assistant Proffesor and with an increase in salary to $2,350 per year. With this letter as a guide we can assume that his salary in 1924 was approximately $2,000 per year which must have seemed like an enormous sum. They moved into a house which Myrtle later described as enormous. They would only occupy the first floor and they rented out the second floor to four professors from Middlebury. They both later recalled that this was a very difficult time. Norman recalled that the chemistry books were badly out of date and nobody else seemed to care. Middlebury was a famous language school. Chemistry was one of the optional courses not to be taken too seriously. Myrtle found that she not only had baby Amy to take care of but also four absent minded professors who required more care than the baby. One incident she recalled was when a professor found a pregnant cat and he put it on the middle of his bed while it delivered its kittens. He watched the whole process in fascination and then called Myrtle to come and clean up his bedclothes. When a letter came from Dr. James Conant at Harvard, Myrtle remembers running up a long hill to deliver the letter to Norman. The letter contained an offer for a research position under Conant. It was a unanimous decision to go back to Harvard as soon as possible. Norman received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin at about this time. It is dated June 23, 1924. There is no indication that he was able to go to Madison to receive the degree in person but he at last had this ticket to unlimited opportunities. The year 1925 seems to have been a good year for this Scott family. The bills were paid and they now could afford better housing. They rented a house at 150 Lexington Avenue. Research studies and association with Conant were very stimulating. The pay was adequate for this small family. Then on September 20,1925 my older brother Norman Jobse was born. Sister Amy had a playmate but the family would require more room so they moved again to 8 Appleton Road in Cambridge where there was more room for a family of four. With this growing family it was getting time to review the options again. By 1927 Norman had made it known that he was considering moving to the industrial world. His resume was very impressive by this time. One letter he received was from the General Chemical Company in New York offering a job at Laurel Hill near New York City at a salary of $375 per month for a position as a Research Chemist. That would have been a very good salary at that time. Norman accepted a position with the Roessler and Hasslacher Chemical Company in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and the family moved to Tottenville on Staten Island. The move to Tottenville was a memorable occasion. Norman had inherited an automobile from a Revernd Donaldson when the Reverend had died a few months earlier but Norman had just learned to drive. The road from Cambridge to New York City in those days included a stretch along the Hudson River known as the Storm King Highway. A rockslide had closed the highway ahead and Norman was required to back up for several miles to find a detour. They finally arrived after midnight when the ferry boat took them to Staten Island and they found their Hotel. I think this was Normans third driving lesson. Living on Staten Island meant that Norman had to take a ferry boat ride to work each day but the fare was only 5 cents each way and he recalled it as a plesant way to commute. Within a year the family moved to Metuchen New Jersey and they were now near a group of other families where the husbands all worked for this same company. This eliminated the need for the ferry boat ride but it was probably not a good move as later events would prove. The DuPont Company purchased Roessler and Hasslacher a few months after the family moved to Metuchen. DuPont also announced plans to close the Perth Amboy plant and to discharge all but 17 of the employees. Norman was the newest employee hired of this group so he assumed he was the 17th. Several other events of interest to the Scott family occured as 1929 was drawing to a close. In October the stock market crashed and on November17 I was born. I was told that I was named for the Reverend Donaldson who had been a very good friend of the family. I never met the gentleman but I was eternally grateful to him. I might have become another Elisha. Norman was ready to join the other families in the next move of the Scotts to the new DuPont R&H plant which was to be located along the Niagara River in Niagara Falls, New York when my brother Norman came down with rheumatic fever. He was desperately ill for several months and could not be moved. Finally in the Summer of 1930 Norman Jobse had recovered sufficiently and the family of five moved to Niagara Falls. They stayed for a while at the LaSalle tourist home in the LaSalle section of Niagara Falls and Myrtle thought she was in Heaven. Someone else to cook and clean was a luxury she had dreamed of but didn't think she would ever see. Within a few months Norman had located a house at 417 Tenth Street in Niagara Falls and this was to become home for about four years. These were happy and productive years for Norman Dunshee. He was beginning to establish a reputation as a prolific inventor and DuPont rewarded his services with salary increases and year end bonus awards. He was credited with a total of 50 patent awards and many of them came during this period. A listing of these patents by patent Number and by brief title is shown in Appendix A. Reading and understanding each of these patents is left as an exercise for the student. Life at 417 Tenth Street was generally very good with schools and stores nearby but it was in the middle of the city and it was not what Norman had in mind for a permanent residence. When my younger brother Richard was born on March 18,1934 Norman announced that it was not right to raise four children and especially three boys in the city. He began looking for suitable quarters. Once again it does not seem that Norman and Myrtle had the same objectives. There were several large houses that were becoming available as the depression deepened in 1934. One big house in the town of Lewistown N.Y. seemed to be my mothers dreamhouse and they looked at it more than once. On the way back to Niagara Falls they went by a farm that was marked For Sale. This was on a road named the Upper Mountain Road about 0.7 miles from the town of Pekin, NY. Norman seemed to know at once that he had found what he was looking for and despite Myrtles protest that this was a ramschackled old farmhouse and not what she had in mind, they bought the place immediately. The Contract of Sale was dated September 10, 1934. What my Father could see was a 45 acre farm high on the top of an escarpment with gently rolling farmland. The view to the North was down this gentle hill to Lake Ontario about 10 miles away and then all the way across the Lake to the city of Toronto about 45 miles away. On a clear day you could see the taller buildings in Toronto. What my mother saw was a 100 year old farmhouse that would take a tremendous amount of work and a lot of money to turn into a suitable home. It turned out they were both correct. This farm had recently been taken over by the Federal Land Bank and was up for sale because the old woman who lived there had not made a payment in years and was not likely to do so in the future. When she was told she would be evicted she took a axe to what remained of the furnace and left the place for good. One more little challenge in a Western NY Winter. The farm consisted of 45 acres with many orchards and vineyards plus hayfields and a large stone quarry. There were many large Walnut and Hickory trees which the bank suggested could be cut in the offseason as a source of revenue. The buildings on the farm consisted of the main house which had five bedrooms upstairs and two large living rooms downstairs plus a large dining room and kitchen. A library which could serve as a guest room was also located on the first floor. The full basement had several large rooms and what remained of the furnace. This house was estimated to be over 100 years old in 1934. There was a second house on the farm which was described as a tenant house plus two large wooden barns and two smaller buildings. The total price of this farm was $6,400 with the provision that only interest payments would be required until the economy improved. Remember this was the height of the depression. This was to be Normans home for the rest of his life and I don't believe he ever regretted buying this place. My siblings and I have often discussed life on the farm and on balance it was probably a good decision to buy the place. My mother would probably not agree with that decision. Many years later when I saw President Jefferson's Monticello it occured to me that this was the way Norman felt about his estate near Pekin. Norman lacked the 200 slaves that Jefferson had but his wife and four children gave it a mighty try. We began spending time on the farm as early as the Winter of 1934/35. I remember standing around a potbellied stove in what would become the library and just trying to stay warm while Norman worked on his plan for the place, By the Spring of 1935 the plan was begining to take place. A new stairway to the second floor with a right angle turn at a landing halfway up the stairs and a stained glass window at this landing gave interesting lighting to this part of the house. New maple hardwood floors went down over the rough wooden planks that had been the original floor. Modern bathroom fixtures replaced the original equipment. I remember one original toilet where the holding tank was mounted high on the wall and you flushed it by pulling on a long chain. Niagara Falls never seemed so impressive after that. The major project as far as the contractors were concerned was when Norman had them cut the space for a 6 foot wide by 4 foot high picture window on the North wall of the house in the dining room. This gave the house the spectacular view he was looking for but it would prove hard to keep warm even when a huge storm window was installed in the Fall. Thermopane glass was to come along a few years later. A two car garage was constructed on the North side of the house and below the dining room. This garage was built of stone from the stone quarry on the farm. An Italian stone mason selected each stone and carefully put it in place. The roof of the garage was a flat concrete slab that came out one step down from the dining room. We now had a large porch that shared the same view and would prove to be a very popular place for three seasons of the year. A low stone wall around this porch served as a railing and also held flower boxes that were in use all during the growing season. The steel beams in the garage below that were used to support this structure were very impressive and necessary. Snow loads were not a problem to this structure. I have made refrence to a stone quarry earlier. It warrants a further description. As the glacier receeded North about 10,000 years earlier it left a very rich and fertile valley in this area with land that generally sloped gently down to the shores of Lake Ontario. There were some notable exceptions where the limestone beneath the surface had sheared away and left a cliff that might drop 30 or 40 feet to a new level below. Our stone quarry was a good example of this. The cliff ran for about 150 feet and had a dropoff of about 40 feet to a smooth limestone floor below. This was the kind of hazard that made the farm a wonderful place to explore for young children but a nightmare for the parents. Previous owners had tossed a few branches over the cliff to maybe cushion the fall. About 50 feet of the cliff had been fenced off but the remaining 100 feet required a better solution. Norman decided to dynamite the top of the cliff with charges placed to blow the rock and earth over the cliff and to turn the cliff into a steep hill. This was an event I did not want to miss. A demolition contractor was chosen and 24 sticks of dynamite were placed at intervals along the top of the cliff. Just before the scheduled time and after Myrtle had taken rollcall of her children, I slipped off to my preplanned observation post which I could reach by climbing several ladders inside our biggest barn until I reached a window in the top of the barn. I had a ringside seat for the whole performance which was only about 200 yards away. What I had not counted on was the few rocks that would fly out in the wrong direction and would head right for the barn. Sixty years later I can still see those rocks coming right at me. They hit the barn wall right below where I was seated and then fell to the ground. No damage was done and I decided that my parents did not need to know about my little adventure. This project was a great success. The cliff was turned into a hill that would have several paths to the floor below. Another project that followed was the building of a swimming pool in the flat area of the stone quarry. This turned out to be a major project since the limestone at that point was very hard and would only yield one thin layer at a time. This project took almost two years to complete but it was a very popular place in the summer. There was nothing else like it for miles around. You can gather from all of this that Norman was building his estate and operation of the farm was a secondary concern. He would leave that to others. In 1935, my grandfather Jobse suggested that his daughter Amy and his son-in-law Arthur could move to our farm and live in the tenant house while Arthur managed the farm. On the face of this seemed like a good suggestion but it turned out to be a disaster. Myrtle and Arthur were both strong personalities and they clashed often on the farm operation. I have only my mothers version of what went wrong but she seemed to think that Arthur had great ambitions and little experience in running a farm. He wanted to buy the best equipment, livestock, chickens, etc. as long as Norman put up the cash. This arrangement lasted a little more than one year when Amy and Arthur moved to Milwaukee to take of grandmother Jobse who seemed to be ill most of her life. The lesson here is to think about how family members will interact before you set up a family business. After this we had a regular farm manager. As I recall there was only a small salary involved but he got all of the milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables that his family could use. My Loyd Harrington ran the farm for several years and raised his seven children on the proceeds. When World War II started Loyd got a good paying job in one of the defense factories and life on the farm was never the same for me after that. Other families lived in the tenant house over the years and assisted in running the farm. The Richardsons had three sons so there were also companions for the Scott boys. Gordon Richardson worked in the maintenance department during the day so he had access to a lot of building material that was also useful on the farm. I remember one instance when Gorden came home very angry. He had placed a can of paint outside the DuPont fence that he intended to pick up after work but when he stopped to get it he found that some "thief" had stolen it. Norman was amused at this double standard. It was about a 12 mile commute to the DuPont plant from the the farm so this took about one half hour on most days when the weather was good. It could be a very difficult trip when snowstorms or sleet and hail came suddenly. Putting on chains and shoveling snow was a regular part of every Winter. To those of us who grew up in that part of the world this was the way Winter was supposed to be. World affairs were of great concern to my father. He would drive back into Niagara Falls on Sunday mornings to get the Sunday edition of the New York Times and then spend several hours reading about affairs in Asia and Europe. War had already come to Asia by this time and the German military buildup under the Nazi regime was well underway by the mid 1930s. I remember Norman wondering if DuPont could develop a fabric that could be used in uniforms to prevent mustard gas from burning the skin. None of this meant much to me at age 8 or 9 nor did it to many of our political leaders at that time. It must have been very frustrating to him not to have had others he could discuss and debate these topics with at the time. I can remember going with him to a barbershop in a nearby town for my monthly haircut. The other patrons would express their opinions on some major event that was the current topic. My father would sit and listen until the barber would say "Doctor Scott, what is your opinion on that subject?" At that point my father would give a half hour lecture on the subject as though he had been preparing to debate that subject at Oxford. I was very proud and much in awe of him. DuPont did not have a good reputation as far as the mental health of their research chemists was concerned. The best known example of this was probably the case of Dr. Wallace Carrouthers who is credited with the invention of Nylon. Three years later, in 1937, he committed suicide at the age of 41. DuPont began employing psychiatrists to interview employees and to help them surmont their individual problems. I doubt that this really helped. The very dangerous chemicals they were dealing with on a daily basis became suspect later on as the long term effect of these chemicals on the human body became better known. In any case, Norman suffered a nervous breakdown in 1938 and was diagnosed as a manic depressive. He spent several months in a sanatarium near Canandaguia, NY where he slowly recovered. Myrtle made the long drive each week to see him for a few hours. I was not allowed to see him until near the end of his stay. We had a plesant day and he showed us the projects he was working on in the nursery. Near the end of our visit it became painfully obvious that he was desperately trying to qualify for release so he could go back home. Shortly thereafter he was released and was able to move back to the farm. After Norman went back to work in early 1939 life returned to normal. War had begun in Europe but America was preoccupied with the depression. The children came face to face with the depression every day in the public schools. The elementry school each of the children attended was a two room building in the town of Pekin. Grades 1 to 4 were held in one room and grades 5 to 8 were held in the other. My brother Richard and I attended all eight grades in that school but my sister Amy and my brother only attended for two years. My father took me to school in the fall of 1935 and enrolled me in the first grade. I don't recall that he had much involvement with the school for the next eight years which was probably a mistake. Most of the other students were the children of farmers and many of the fathers were unemployed. One of the boys had a trapline where he would trap skunks. He would check his traps before he came to school and we would all know if he had been successful. Several times the teacher would have to send him home. I think that the clothes he wore were the only clothes he had. My father could have served as a role model or tutor for these kids but he was never asked. I was obviously an outsider to this group and that was not a good idea when many of the boys were just waiting around until they turned 16 and could quit school. I learned a lot in that school. After elementary school came the bus rides from Pekin into LaSalle high school. It was a big sacrifice to live in the country and attend high school because the bus would leave immediately after school and you could not take part in any extracurricular activities. When Amy and Norman Jobse were seniors in high school in 1940 we rented a big house on the Niagara River at 6819 Buffalo Avenue. Norman J. had caught up with Amy by skipping two grades in the Pekin elementry school. He was now one of the youngest seniors in the class. This was a great house for our big family for several reasons. It was within walking distance of the high school and it had a great view of the river and the Grand Island bridge. It was for sale for $15,000 and Myrtle wanted to buy it. There was a big boathouse that went with the property that had two speedboats that had been lifted out of the water for the winter. I could begin to see other possibilities for the summer besides working on the farm. Norman did not go along with these ideas and we moved back to the farm in the summer. We had a great winter in the city and by the time we moved back to the farm we had many new friends that came to visit us in Pekin. We seemed to have the best of both worlds by spending winters in the city and summers on the farm but we did not try this again for several years. By this time Normans career was going very well. He had many new inventions that became patents and DuPont recognized these with bonus awards that were one third of his salary. He was elected to Whos who in America in 1940. He was also determined that we were going to enjoy life on the farm. By the fall of 1941 Amy and Norman J. were making plans to go to college and I could see that our work force was becoming depleted. My brother Richard was getting bigger and he was almost eight years old so maybe we could work him harder. I had discovered that it was much more fun to work on the neighbors farm where I eventually earned the fabulous sum of $18 for a 6 day week. I recall one Saturday afternoon when I was working on the top of the neighbors combine and we suddenly came to a stop. Norman was standing in front of the tractor and he wanted me to come home immediately. There was work to do on our farm. I suppose that it should have been flattering to be in demand at age 12 but I really did not know how to run the farm. After December 7,1941 the world took another big change for the Scott family and many other families. My father and mother had taken my younger brother and me to the movies that Sunday afternoon and when we came out there were newspapers with three inch headlines announcing that we were at war with Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Norman seemed to grasp the significance of this immediately and we drove home to see what other details were on the radio. I was now 12 years old and eager to enlist but this war would end before my time for service. Maybe I was just anxious to get off the farm. Now there was a real labor shortage as all the young men of service age either enlisted or were drafted into the armed forces. The leisurely summer I had been planning by our swimming pool now seemed far away. The summer of 1942 did find us with many maps spread on the dining room table as Norman followed the world conflicts. It was a great way to learn Geography. By the fall of 1943 it was my turn to ride the school bus to high school and I also encountered the strange sort of prejudice that city children had for farm kids. Since we were not really considered farmers in Pekin I was left somewhere in between. It was not a comfortable feeling. This lasted for about two years until I found I had some talent for athletics and I made the high school JV basketball team. Immediately I was accepted by a lot of kids from the city. Norman tried to accomodate my commuting schedule by meeting me after basketball practice but this was very hard since he was also in a wartime carpool with Dr. Doubrevney who thought that basketball was a big waste of time. We struggled with this unsatisfactory situation for the winter of 1944/45. After that we spent each winter in the city. In the winter of 1945/46 we rented a house at 8193 West Rivershore Drive. The owners had gone to Florida for the winter but we considered it a treat just to be in the city. This house was right next door to the Blakes who had a daughter named Mary Lou. By now I was a junior in high school and she was just a sophmore so I was sure we would never have anything in common. Moving to the city for the winter was now a regular part of our agenda. For the winter of 1946/47 we moved to a house on 73rd street which was very close to the high school. One event I remember of this, my senior year in high school, was one Sunday afternoon when I was struggling with Trigonometry homework. There were several problems that had to do with identities and I could not seem to solve them. Norman was nearby reading an American Chemical Society journal and I decided to ask him for some help. We were both startled by this because I had never asked for help before and since I had not asked for help he assumed I didn't need any. He put down his journal and looked at my problems. He said he had never had a formal course in Trigonometry so he would like to look at my textbook. Within an hour he was showing me how to go about solving these identities and it was almost fun. I completed the assignment. The question then struck me, have I been ignoring one of the worlds greatest tutors all these years because I was afraid to ask for help or because he seemed too busy? After that he never volunteered to help but he would always help if I would just ask. How I could have used my tutor the next year when I had moved away and was a Freshman in college. The house at 73rd. street was only two blocks from the high school so it was ideal in that regard. It was also well back from the Niagara River so there was no view and I don't think Myrtle ever discussed buying the place. The one big drawback I remember was that it was now a long way from 8189 West River Shore Drive and I seemed to be making that walk very frequently to see if Mary Lou Blake and I now had anything in common. One of my team mates on the football team gave me a lecture one day about going out with wealthy girls like Mary Lou when I was obviously from a much poorer family that had to live on 73rd. street. You get the idea by now about the house on 73rd. street. In the fall of 1947 Norman and Myrtle drove me out to The University of Michigan and dropped me off at my dormitory before returning home. For a small town country boy who had just learned to find his way around high school this was a very traumatic experience. All of the major colleges and universities were very overcrowded in 1947 with vetrans of World War II who were taking advantage of the GI bill and Michigan was no exception. They had an excellent football team that year so I at least had something cheerful to write home about. I somehow survived the first semester and by the middle of the second semester I was beginning to wonder if I could get a job related to my engineering studies. Norman suggested that I write a letter to the Engineering Manager at DuPont explaining my qualifications and interests in summer employment. I carefully composed a letter and even had my roomate type it so that it looked very professional. After I mailed this letter I waited several weeks and had no reply. I mentioned my dissapointment in a letter home and the next day Norman went to see the man I had written to about six weeks earlier. I got an offer of employment in the return mail with a profound apology. Since I had not mentioned that I was Dr. Scott's son he had not known that a reply was urgent. I accepted this offer since I had no other employment opportunities and I was sure by now I did not want to be a farmer. The summer of 1948 was very interesting. I drove back and forth with my father. I did all of the driving and he did all of the talking. I mildly complained about the difficulty of listening to subjects that I didn't understand for the half hour drive each way but Norman explained he was just using me for a sounding board before he had to explain some topic to DuPont Management. I got him to take me to dinner and bowling at the Niagara Club after work on Friday evenings and we both enjoyed the experience. I got the feeling that he did not quite know how to get to know his children and they were growing up fast. We occasionally took Mary Lou along on bowling outings or on trips to baseball games in Buffalo so she got to know him a little bit. Probably as well as I did. I reached several conclusions that summer. One was that I did not want to work at DuPont or any other factory in Niagara Falls for more than just a summer. The fumes and the odors of the chemical plants along the river could not be good for your health. I appreciated more than ever Normans decision to move his family to the country. A second decision was that I would try to get to know my father better. Many of the subjects such as world affairs now seemed a lot more interesting as I came to know them better. He would still put me down hard in a debate if my logic did not hold up but I would think over the subject and come back for more. Unfortunately I did not know how little time I had to implement this second decision. The third decision was that Mary Lou and I might have something in common after all. She is still not sure of this last decision. By the fall of 1948 I had returned for my Sophmore year at Michigan. I invited several members of my family to come out for a football game that season and I remember at least my mother and father plus my brother Norman and his wife Joanne coming to Ann Arbor for one big game. Michigan had a National Championship that year so tickets were hard to get. My brother Norman and his wife sat up high in the corner of the end zone and he later commented that these were got seats until the clouds rolled in and he could no longer see the field. I was dissapointed in the seats that I got for Norman and Myrtle because they were low in the end zone and directly centered between the goal posts. Late in the third quarter Michigan was driving for a touchdown on the far end of the field when the third quarter expired and they moved the line of scrimmage to the end of the field directly in front of Norman and Myrtle. My father later remembered this as the best seats he ever had and as close to being in the game as he had been since his days at Drake. It turned out to be a good weekend. When I came home for Christmas that year it became quickly apparent that something was terribly wrong. Norman met me at the train and wanted to talk about a DuPont meeting he had just come from in Wilmington, Deleware. This was an annual meeting to discuss what projects DuPont would fund for the next year. Norman regarded it as a very important meeting because it would determine the budget that his team of research chemists would have to work with for the next year. 1949 promised to be a tough year with a major recession just getting under way. Norman felt that he had not been able to make the DuPont managers in Wilmington understand his projects and he was extremely frustrated. As I later learned there was a major policy dispute at DuPont about why they were doing research at out lying facilities like the Electro Chemical Division in Niagara Falls when they had a Central Research facility in Wilmington. This had not been explained to Norman as the central issue and he was sure he had let his team down. He was also concerned about their jobs which depended on this funding. As he continued to talk I began to realize he was very ill in a way that I had never seen before. Several of his friends from DuPont came to call and to reassure him that he had done a fine job but this situation was now way out of our control. Myrtle recognized what was happening and she and I arranged to take him to the sanatarium in Canandaguia where they had treated him earlier. He was too sick for them to handle and we then drove him to the State Hospital at Rochester where he was admitted. The doctors at Rochester said there was nothing more that Myrtle and I could do for him and that we should return home and await instructions. The next word we got was that he had died suddenly and they wanted permission to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death. A coronary thrombosis was determined as the cause of death. The autopsy report also stated that he appeared to be a much older man than his actual years by at least ten years. Photographs that we had confirmed this with a very rapid ageing after age 42. Funeral services were held in Rochester in early January 1949. He had died on December 30,1948 just a few days before his 55th birthday. At his request his body was cremated and his ashes were buried in a vetrans cemetary in Maryland many years later when Myrtle died at the age of 94. Myrtle keep the farm for several more years because my brother said he wanted to be a farmer and Myrtle said she felt guilty because she never loved the place like Norman did. Two young men bought the place for $23,500 and Myrtle had a hard time convincing the IRS that this was not a Capital Gain. Finally a shoebox full of old receipts did the trick and it began to look like the buyers got a bargain. Several large houses were built on the old alfalfa field that was on even higher ground with each of these houses capturing the same view to the north that Norman had noticed 20 years before. I am sure Norman would have approved because he often talked about building a house on that hill. I don't think he planned on any neighbors however. The patent awards continued to come in after his death and were a welcome relief to Myrtle who still had two boys to put through school and another 40 years to live. I have often wished that Norman could have lived a few more years if only to have met his many grandchildren. He would have been very proud of them all. We have one picture of him reading to his first two grandchildren who were sister Amy's first two children. The younger boy spoke at a memorial service for Myrtle in 1988 and he said that he remembered as a young boy that the farm was a "magical place". I think that summed up Norman's feelings.