Henry Cecil McBay - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Birth/Family Background

McBay was born "Henry Ransom McBay" (named from his maternal grandfather, Henry Ransom) in 1914 in Mexia, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. His father, William Cecil McBay, was a barber who eventually became an embalmer and funeral director; his mother, Roberta Ransom (McBay), was a seamstress.

Early Education and Employment

McBay was able to receive a good education.
Because of his proficiency in math, McBay was able to gain admission to Wiley College

Wiley College

Wiley College is a four-year, private, historically black, liberal arts college located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is notable as one of the oldest predominantly...

in Marshall, Texas. He paid for his education by working in the college’s dining hall and post office. Inspired by his math and chemistry professors, McBay studied organic chemistry and earned his B.S. degree in 1934. His Wiley professors helped him acquire a scholarship to Atlanta to work on his next degree.

With only $1.65 in his pocket, McBay immediately took a job in the Atlanta University dining hall so he could eat. After only a few days on campus, his faculty advisor, Professor K.A. Huggins, arranged for him to work in the chemistry laboratory.

McBay began to help Huggins study new types of plastics that had properties similar to natural rubber. Soon, McBay was performing his own analysis of the plastics. When the project was finished, McBay received his master’s degree from Atlanta University and Huggins received his doctorate from the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

. This indirect connection to the University of Chicago would later be important to McBay’s career.

After earning his master’s degree, McBay returned to Wiley College so he could help his younger brother and sister pay for college. However, going “home” proved to be a disappointment. Some faculty members still thought of him as their student and never accepted McBay as an academic peer. Because of his devotion to his siblings, however, he remained at Wiley until his brother received his college degree and his parents were able to pay for his sister’s education.

In 1938 McBay took a better-paying teaching job at a Quindaro, Kansas junior college. At the end of the first year, he enrolled in the University of Chicago summer school program, where he received good grades for that term. When he returned to Quindaro, he found that the new junior college principal had, for political reasons, hired an instructor in his place.

McBay then moved to a high school mathematics teaching position in Huntsville, Texas, where he stayed for three semesters. He then joined a newly-formed research team at Tuskegee Institute

Tuskegee University

Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...

in Alabama assigned the task of finding a suitable substitute for jute fiber. Indian shipments of jute, which was used for rope and fabrics for sacks, had ended due to World War I.

The Tuskegee team hoped to prove that okra stems would be an effective substitute, but McBay proved that, by the time an okra plant had matured, the stems were too brittle. Okra could be harvested for food or for fiber, but not for both. Ironically, McBay had worked himself out of a job.

Later Education

McBay then accepted a teaching assistant’s position at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

and resumed his doctoral studies. This move also kept him out of the U.S. military: the government needed large numbers of chemistry graduates and was not drafting people in those positions. He demonstrated his love of teaching by designing a chemistry course for first-year college course.

In 1944, McBay chose Professor Morris Kharasch as his research advisor. He began to learn very specialized techniques in handling dangerous compounds. McBay began to create highly explosive materials that offered great value as chemical building blocks. He subsequently developed new methods of producing a dangerous compound from hydrogen peroxide. Discoveries by McBay (and Kharasch) allowed chemists around the world to create inexpensive peroxide compounds which are extremely useful as building blocks in many chemical reactions. As a result of that research, McBay received the Elizabeth Norton for excellence in chemical research in 1944 and 1945. His dissertation focused on his hydrogen peroxide project, and in 1945 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

.

McBay then returned to Atlanta as an assistant professor at Morehouse College

Morehouse College

Morehouse College is a private, all-male, liberal arts, historically black college located in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College, Morehouse is one of three remaining traditional men's colleges in the United States....

in Atlanta. In 1956, he was appointed chairman of the chemistry department. In 1982 he transferred to his old school, Atlanta University, and became the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry there. McBay would eventually teach for 41 years in the Atlanta University system (Morehouse

Morehouse College

, Spelman

Spelman College

Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...

, and Atlanta

Clark Atlanta University

Clark Atlanta University is a private, historically black university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was formed in 1988 with the consolidation of Clark College and Atlanta University...

McBay the Teacher

One of McBay’s main goals was to pass along his love for chemistry to his students. He regularly demonstrated how two materials could be combined to produce something with completely different properties. One of his frequent demonstrations combined a metallic poison, sodium, with a gaseous poison, chlorine, to produce table salt. He wanted his students to share his fascination with such processes, which he believed to be minor miracles.

In 1951, he developed a chemistry education program in Liberia on behalf of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

Honors/Awards

Norten Prize (for Excellence at Research in Chemistry) at University of Chicago, in 1944.
Norten Prize (for Excellence at Research in Chemistry) at University of Chicago, in 1945.
-- "E.A.Jones (Edward A. Jones
Edward A. Jones
Edward Allen Jones, born in 1903, was an African-American linguist, scholar and diplomat. Jones is best known for his book, A Candle in the Dark: A History of Morehouse College. Jones received his Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in 1926, where he was the school’s valedictorian. He received...

)/H.C.McBay/E.B.Williams Award (for Excellence in Teaching)" established at Morehouse College, in 1973.
Outstanding Teacher, named by the National Association for Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, in 1976.
The Herty Award (for Outstanding Contributions to Chemistry) from the American Chemical Society of Georgia, in 1976.
The Norris Award (for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry) from the American Chemical Society of the Northeast, in 1978.
The Kimuel Huggins Award (for Outstanding Contributions of Chemistry, Human Endeavors) from Bishop College, in 1980.
E.A.Jones (Edward A. Jones
Edward A. Jones
Edward Allen Jones, born in 1903, was an African-American linguist, scholar and diplomat. Jones is best known for his book, A Candle in the Dark: A History of Morehouse College. Jones received his Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in 1926, where he was the school’s valedictorian. He received...

)/H.C.McBay/E.B.Williams Award (for Excellence in Teaching) from Morehouse College, in 1981.
-- "Henry McBay Endowed Chemistry Scholarship" (for students) established at Morehouse College, in 1986.
Honorary Doctor of Science, from Atlanta University, in 1987.
-- "Nabrit-Mapp-McBay" Science Building dedicated at Morehouse College, in 1989.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar, appointed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1991.
American Scholar Award, from Delta Chapter of Georgia of Phi Beta Kappa, in 1991.
"Superstar of Science" named, among others, by EBONY magazine, in 1991.
Honorary Doctor of Science, granted by Atlanta’s Emory University, in 1992.
Honorary Doctor of Science, granted by Bowie State University, in 1993.
American Chemical Society Award (for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences), in 1995.
-- "Henry C. McBay Research Fellowships" (for faculty members) established by the United Negro College Fund, in 1995.
-- "Henry C.R. McBay Chair in Space Sciences" established (posthumously) jointly by Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, in 1996.
Honorary Doctor of Science, granted (posthumously) by Morehouse College, in 1996.
Patent (for Fire Extinguishing Capsule), issued (posthumously), in 1997.
Patent (for Device For The Synthesis Of Dimeric Species), issued (posthumously), in 1999.

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