Prof Alan Wilfrid Cranbrook Menzies

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(pronounced ''MING-iss''; 31 July 1877 – 8 September 1966) was a Scottish-born chemist who later taught at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

Life

Menzies was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 31 July 1877, son of Thomas Hunter Menzies, master draper, and Helen Charlotte (née Cranbrook). His name on the birth certificate does not include Cranbrook. He was educated at

Daniel Stewart's College Stewart's Melville College (SMC) is all-boys' private day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. Classes are all boys in the 1st to 5th years and co-educational in Sixth (final) year. It has a roll of about 750 pupils. The modern Stewart's Melville C ...

and then studied science at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. graduating with MA and BSc in 1898. In 1900 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. His proposers were

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish Organic chemistry, organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildi ...

, John Gibson, Sir Arthur Mitchell, and Sir John Batty Tuke. In 1910 he emigrated to the United States to take up postgraduate studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

where he gained a PhD. Following the retirement of Professor Frank Fanning Jewett in 1912, Menzies was appointed head of chemistry at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

. Two years later he was offered a professorship at

where he taught until he retired in 1945. He married Mary Isabella Dickson on 20 March 1908 at All Saints Church, Edinburgh. They had one child, Elizabeth Grantcranbrook Menzies, born on 24 June 1915, in Princeton; she died there, unmarried, on 12 January 2003. Menzies died in Foothill Acres Nursing Home in Hillsborough, NJ on 8 September 1966.

Publications

''Several of the publications cited here are with co-authors.'' * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menzies, Alan Wilfrid Cranbrook 1877 births 1966 deaths Scientists from Edinburgh People educated at Stewart's Melville College Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 20th-century Scottish chemists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Princeton University faculty University of Chicago alumni Scottish emigrants to the United States Oberlin College faculty Academics from Edinburgh