History of the ACS Organic Division

Founding

The ACS Organic Chemistry Division (ORGN) was established in 1908 (chaired by Edward Curtis Franklin).

Edward Curtis Franklin
(1862 - 1937)

Past Presidents of ACS who were affiliated with ORGN

• 2005 William F. Carroll, Jr. (1952 - )
• 2004 Chuck Casey (1942- ) - Received a Cope Scholar Award in 1988
• 1999 Edel Wasserman (1932- ) - ORGN Councilor 1983-88
• 1997 Paul S. Anderson (1938- )
• 1996 Ronald Breslow (1931- ) - recipient of Gassman Award in 2006
• 1992 Ernest L. Eliel (1921- ) - ORGN Chair 1974
• 1990 Paul G. Gassman (1935-1994) - ORGN Councilor 1983-88, ORGN Chair 1981
• 1961 Arthur C. Cope (1909-1966) - ORGN Secretary 1940-44, ORGN Chair 1947
• 1947 W. Albert Noyes, Jr. (1898-1980)
• 1945 Carl S. Marvel (1894-1988) - ORGN Chairman 1933
• 1941 William Lloyd Evans (1870-1954) - ORGN Chair 1928
• 1938 Frank C. Whitmore (1887-1947) - ORGN Secretary 1925-29, ORGN Chair 1930
• 1935 Roger Adams (1889-1971) - ORGN Chair 1921
• 1931 Moses Gomberg (1866-1947)
• 1926 James F. Norris (1871-1940)
• 1925 James F. Norris (1871-1940)
• 1923 Edward C. Franklin (1862-1937) - founded ORGN 1908, Chair 1929
• 1920 William A. Noyes (1857-1941)

Chairs of ORGN

1910 Edward C. Franklin 1911 George B. Frankforter 1912-13 Treat B. Johnson 1914-15 F.F. Allen 1916 C. G. Derick 1917 J. R. Bailey 1918 William J. Hale 1919 L. W. Jones 1920 E. Emmett Reid 1921 Roger Adams 1922 Hans T. Clarke 1923 Frank C. Whitmore 1924 R. R. Renshaw 1925 Julius A. Nieuwland 1926 Marston T. Bogert 1927 Frank B. Dains 1928 William Lloyd Evans 1929 Edward C. Franklin 1930 Frank C. Whitmore 1931 James B. Conant 1932 Homer Adkins 1933 Carl S. Marvel 1934 Claude S. Hudson 1935 Arthur J. Hill 1936 Henry Gilman 1937 L. Charles Raiford 1938 Lyndon F. Small 1939 Werner E. Bachmann 1940 Cliff S. Hamilton 1941 Nathan L. Drake 1942 Lee I. Smith 1943 Louis F. Fieser 1944 Ralph L. Shriner 1945-46 Samuel M. McElvain 1947 Arthur C. Cope 1948 Paul D. Bartlett 1949 William G. Young 1950 Ralph W. Bost 1951 William S. Johnson 1952 Robert C. Elderfield 1953 Walter N. Lauer 1954 Max Tishler 1955 A. Harold Blatt 1956 Nelson J. Leonard 1957 John D. Roberts 1958 Melvin S. Newman 1959 Karl A. Folkers 1960 John C. Sheehan 1961 William E. Parham

1962 Stanley J. Cristol 1963 William G. Dauben 1964 Delos F. De Tar 1965 Theodore L. Cairns 1966 Herbert O. House 1967 Gilbert J. Stork 1968 Harry H. Wasserman 1969 Jerrold Meinwald 1970 Frederick G. Bordwell 1971 Ronald Breslow 1972 Jerome A. Berson 1973 Andrew Streitwieser, Jr. 1974 Ernest L. Eliel 1975 Jeremiah P. Freeman 1976 Howard E. Simmons, Jr. 1977 E. C. Taylor 1978 Harold Hart 1979 Andrew Kende 1980 Robert Ireland 1981 Paul Gassman 1982 Al Meyers 1983 J. C. Martin 1984 Peter Beak 1985 Clayton Heathcock 1986 Albert Padwa 1987 Carl R. Johnson 1988 Martin Semmelhack 1989 Patrick Confalone 1990 Victor Snieckus 1991 Joseph Gajewski 1992 James Marshall 1993 Michael Doyle 1994 Frank Davis 1995 William Roush 1996 Amos Smith 1997 Cynthia Maryanoff 1998 Dale Poulter 1999 Ross Johnson 2000 Dennis Curran 2001 Robert Boeckman 2002 William Nugent 2003 Edwin Vedejs 2004 William Greenlee 2005 Huw Davies 2006 Kathy Parker 2007 Barry Snider 2008 Robert Volkmann 2009 Lisa McElwee-White

Secretary-Treasurers of ORGN

1925 - 29	Frank C. Whitmore*
1930 - 34	Julian Hill*
1935 - 39	Ralph Shriner*
1940 - 44	Arthur C. Cope*
1945 - 49	Ralph Bost*
1950 - 54	Nelson J. Leonard*
1954 - 59	William Parham*
1960 - 64	Herbert O. House*
1965 - 69	Norman A. LeBel*
1970 - 73	Jeremiah Freeman*
1974 - 77	E. M. Burgess*
1978 - 81	Peter Beak*
1981 - 85	Walter Trahanovsky*
1986 - 89	Joseph Gajewski*
1990 - 93	William Roush
1994 - 96	Dennis Liotta
1997 - 01	Alan Marchand
2002 - 05	James Rigby
2006 - 09	Gary Molander

* Also Program Chair

Program Chairs of ORGN

1988 - 91	Frank Davis
1992 - 95	Dan Pasto
1996 - 99	Stan Hall
2000 - 03	Lisa McElwee-White
2004 - 06	Rob Larsen
2006 - 07	William Greenlee
2008 - 10	Scott Sieburth

Membership

Year	Paid Members
1936	397
1937	430
1938	444
1939	441
1940	555
1941	565
1942	673
1943	679
1944	756
1945	715
1946	787
1947	1,002
1948	1,014
2008	16,300

Historical Events of the Division

1908	The ACS Organic Chemistry Division is founded with Edward Curtis Franklin as the first Chair
1925	The First National Symposium on Organic Chemistry (NOS) was held in Rochester, N. Y.
1927	The Second National Symposium on Organic Chemistry was held in Columbus, Ohio
1959	The Rogers Adams Award is established and Sir Derek H. R. Barton is the first recipient
1973	The first Arthur C. Cope Award was made to Roald Hoffmann and Robert B. Woodward
1981	The Graduate Fellowship Program was initiated
1985	ORGN starts to distribute Organic Syntheses (with Vol. 62) free to its members
1986	The Arthur C. Cope Scholar Awards Program was initiated
1992	The Technical Achievement Award in Organic Chemistry (TAOC) Program was initiated
1994	With financial help from Bayer, the Gassman Award program was started and the first award was given to Nelson Leonard
1995	The Leete award was endowed and David N. Harpp is the first recipient
2007	The Gassman Award was endowed by Midwest Pharmaceuticals
2008	ORGN Holds Electronic Elections for the first time
2008	ORGN Celebrates its Centennial at the 236th National ACS Meeting with a Symposium Dedicated to the history of organic chemistry

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ORGN Will archive historical documents with CHF

At the ORGN Executive Committee meeting on Sunday 8/17/2008 a motion was approved a deed of gift to the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) for the Division of Organic Chemistry archives. If you feel that you have records or papers that might be included in the archives or a significant collection of materials, please contact the secretary treasurer. Eventually, we hope to list all the items that are sent to the archives on this website.