Chemist

John W. Rodgers, 83, salesman for 40 yearsJohn W. Rodgers, a retired salesman, died Monday of cancer at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. He was 83 and lived in Ocean City.Mr. Rodgers spent 40 years as a salesman, first with the J. H. Filbert margarine firm in Southwest Baltimore and then with Smith Motor Co. in White Marsh. He retired in 1975 and moved to Ocean City in 1983.Born in South Baltimore, he graduated from St. Mary's Star of the Sea parochial school. He was active in Catholic fraternal orders, including the Knights of Columbus.

William Calvin Johnson, a chemist at the old Army Chemical Center in Aberdeen for nearly 40 years and a former instructor at the Dunbar Evening School in Baltimore, died Saturday of natural causes at Union Memorial Hospital.Mr. Johnson, 79, of Ashburton in West Baltimore, was a research analyst who studied the composition of complex chemical compounds at the Harford County facility now known as Aberdeen Proving Ground.Mr. Johnson worked at the facility from 1951 to 1988, and was one of the government's first black chemists.

Andy Agnew is a bottle collector, not a theologian. But he has an irrefutable definition for the term Seventh Heaven. After six years of being co-chairman of the Baltimore Antique Bottle Club's annual show and sale, on Sunday he'll be there as an ordinary mortal.After all the responsibility, the going from slip-up to personality clash to crisis, on this year's great day -- at Essex Community College Athletic Center -- he'll go from bottle to bottle.He'll have a chance at some of the good stuff.

Chemist Laura L. McConnell of Crownsville, who studies how pesticides reach the Chesapeake Bay by air, was named Herbert L. Rothbart Outstanding Early Career Research Scientist 1997 by the Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville.The research service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific agency.McConnell was honored for planning and conducting the first simultaneous measurements of air and surface-water concentrations of 20 pesticides in the bay during various seasons.

Lord Todd,89, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist whose work helped pave the way for the discovery of the structure of DNA, died Friday in Cambridge, England.Mr. Todd was awarded the Nobel in chemistry in 1957 for his research into the components of nucleic acids, from which genes and the chromosomes on which they are located are made. His work cleared the way for Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins to work out the detail of the structure, including the famous double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid -- DNA, the basis of heredity.

The doctor called. The world collapsed. It was the Big C."Cholesterol? I've got cholesterol?"Pause."What's cholesterol?"Now you might think it impossible for someone to be abroad in this world and still maintain a pristine ignorance of one of its most iniquitous substances, something everybody else knows all about. Believe me, it is not so difficult as it sounds: it's the old pleasure/pain principal in action, by which all animals seek the first and avoid the latter as long as they are able.

Leroy W. Shuger, a chemist whose development of reflectorized paints made the world's roads safer, died of heart failure June 6 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 87 and lived in Pikesville.Dr. Shuger was a retired chief executive officer and the last surviving member of the founding family of the Baltimore Paint & Chemical Corp."He was one of the giants of the industry and he succeeded in bringing Baltimore into prominence in the paint manufacturing business," said William Wilson, a retired vice president of Van Horn Metz, which supplied pigments and resins to Dr. Shuger's firm.

Gregg B. Gagliardi, 37, Baltimore chemistGregg B. Gagliardi, a Baltimore chemist, died of cancer Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Fullerton resident was 37.Mr. Gagliardi was a manufacturing chemist with Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, formerly SCM Chemical Co., which he joined in 1987. Before then, he was a chemist with the now-defunct Courtney Industries.He enjoyed competing in local marathons and 5-K races; lure coursing, or racing, his Irish Wolfhounds; saltwater fishing; bicycling; and brewing beer.

"Smart cars" are out, but DNA is in.County Executive John G. Gary has decided not to invest in the smart car computer technology county police officers have been road-testing for engineers at Westinghouse's Linthicum plant.However, Mr. Gary has proposed hiring a second police chemist to collect and analyze DNA evidence from crime scenes as part of his $48.2 million police budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, contains genetic information that can be used to narrow possible suspects.

Louis Robert Heiss, a chemist and research instruments inventor who secured six patents and continued to tinker with ideas long after he retired, died of a heart attack July 9 at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 82."I met him in the eighth grade, and even then he was a typical scientist," said his wife of 56 years, Martha Furr Heiss. "He was always very quiet and studious. Years later, he'd always say that he loved me from the moment he laid eyes on me."The couple grew up around the corner from each other in Washington, and attended the same schools until Mr. Heiss entered American University to study chemistry and biology.

On February 12, 2009, two days before his 83rd birthday, DR. STANLEY BLOCK, recipient of the gold medal for exceptional service under President Ford. Esteemed Research Chemist and beloved father and grandfather passed away quietly and peacefully. He is predeceased by his loving wife Naomi. He leaves behind his loving children, Steven (Michele) Block, Tammy (Yehuda) Schmidt and Sam (Jennifer) Block. He will be greatly missed by his loving grandchildren; Rachel, Ben, Daniella, Maytal, Joshua, Paul, Megan and Lauren.

Peggy A. Desel, a former chemist and homemaker, died of Parkinson's disease Sunday at her Catonsville home. She was 79. Peggy Anne Lane was born and raised on Staten Island, N.Y. She was a 1946 graduate of Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1950 from Rosemont College in Rosemont, Pa. Mrs. Desel worked as a chemist from 1950 to 1953 for the Wallerstein Chemical Co. in Staten Island. In 1953, she married Frederick F. Desel, a Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Alexander J. "Alex" Young III, a retired science teacher and former chemist, died of pancreatic cancer Friday at his Catonsville home. He was 72. Mr. Young was born and raised in Pittsfield, Mass., and was a 1955 graduate of Cranwell Preparatory School in Lenox, Mass. He attended Georgetown University and in 1959 earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. He later earned a master's degree in chemistry from Beaver College, now Arcadia University, in Glenside, Pa. He worked as a chemist for General Electric Co. in Pittsfield before moving to Sparks in 1973.

Police chemist Joshua Yohannan crushed the pink Ecstasy tablet with a mortar and pestle, dripped a solution of sulfuric acid and formaldehyde into a plastic tray, and then sprinkled the pink powder on top of it. Yohannan expected the mixture to turn purple and then black. He hoped that a few granules would turn orange. And that is what happened. The triple-color change meant that the pill with the bunny logo contained MDMA, or Ecstasy, and methamphetamine, a far more dangerous and addictive drug.

Andrew Felix Rekus, a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric chemist, died of a heart attack July 26 at his son's Odenton home. The former Homeland resident was 88. Born in Baltimore and raised on Hollins Street, he was a 1937 Loyola High School graduate who earned a chemistry degree at Loyola College. He worked at Revere Copper and Brass in Southwest Baltimore before serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He did research in ordnance at the Dwight Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and received a commendation for his work.

Elinor M. Douty, a retired chemist and baseball fan, died of cancer Saturday at her home in the Wyman Park Apartments. She was 87. Born Elinor Moore in Atlanta and raised in Baltimore, she was a 1936 graduate of Forest Park High School and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Goucher College in 1940. She worked as a chemist at Johns Hopkins Hospital for 45 years until retiring in 1985. Mrs. Douty had attended Orioles games for 35 years at the old Memorial Stadium. Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray were her favorite players, friends said.

Ellsworth G. Acker, a retired chemist, died of cancer Sept. 13 at Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster. The Taylorsville resident was 86. Born in Kokomo, Ind., and raised in Northeast Baltimore's Hamilton section, he was a 1938 graduate of City College. He earned a bachelor's degree in physical science at the University of Maryland. In 1943, Mr. Ellsworth joined the Navy and served as a captain aboard an amphibious craft in the Pacific. After the war, he earned a second bachelor's degree in chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University and became a chemist at W.R. Grace.

Milton Charles Vanik, a retired chemist, died of cancer Monday at Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie. The Severna Park resident was 76. Born in Carney, he was a Towson High School graduate and earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and doctorate in physical chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University. He served in the Army Reserve. He began work at Farboil Paint Co. on Key Highway and later did polymer research for W.R. Grace Co. He worked at the cement and lime division of Martin-Marietta Corp.

Joseph Epstein, a research chemist and former chief of defense research at Edgewood Arsenal, died of kidney failure Saturday at Northwest Hospital Center. He was 87. Born and raised in Philadelphia, the son of Polish immigrants, he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1938 from Temple University in Philadelphia, his master's from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940, and a doctorate in 1966 from the University of Delaware. Dr. Epstein began his civilian career at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in 1940, and during a 40-year career there became an acknowledged expert in chemical warfare, detoxification, treatment of contaminated water supplies and safe disposal of chemical weapons.

Richard Smalley, 62, a Rice University professor and Nobel laureate who helped discover buckyballs, soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules, and championed the field of nanotechnology, died of cancer Friday in Houston. He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with fellow Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto. They discovered a new configuration of carbon atoms, which they dubbed the buckminsterfullerene - buckyball for short - because of its resemblance to the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller.