Charles Coale Price III was born on July 13, 1913, to Thornton Walton Price, amechanical engineer, and Helen Marot Farley, inPassaic, New Jersey. His parents wereQuakers who had married in the Swarthmore Friends Meeting. Charles was the first of five children. At age six, his right hand was blown off in an accident with a box ofdetonators for dynamite.
Price received his Masters (1935) and Ph.D. (1936) fromHarvard University, where he worked withLouis Fieser.[1] In June 1936, he married Mary Elma White.[2]
Price did one year of post-doctoral work at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago,[3] working withRoger Adams on the structure ofgossypol.[4] His interest in molecular bonding and the mechanisms of chemical reactions underlies much of his career.[2]He was a member of the faculty from 1936 to 1946, becoming an assistant professor in 1936, an instructor in 1937, and an associate professor in 1942, in the department of chemistry.[5][1]
From 1946 to 1954, Price was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at theUniversity of Notre Dame.[13]At Notre Dame, Price andPaul Doughty Bartlett organized the first Conference on Organic Reaction Mechanisms, held September 3, 1946. This conference marks the point at which Americanphysical organic chemists in the United States began to identify themselves as members of a field.[14][15]Price was a founding co-editor of theJournal of Polymer Science in 1946, withPaul M. Doty andHerman Francis Mark.[16] He also served on the editorial board ofOrganic Syntheses from 1946 to 1954.[2] He received the 1946ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, given to the most promising young chemist, and presented "Some Polar Factors Affecting the Properties of Unsaturated Compounds" as his award address.[17]
Price was a pioneer in the field ofpolyethers. He invented polyetherpolyurethane rubber, a form offoam rubber which became widely used in sponges, mattresses, cars, insulation and building materials, flotation devices, and packaging.[5] He obtained U.S. Patent 2,866,774 for elastomeric polyether urethanes (Filing Date: 09/23/1953; Publication Date: 12/30/1958).[18][19][20]
"Although I do not underestimate the contributions that science can continue to make to our civilization, I am convinced that scientific progress is far ahead of political progress. To solve our present crisis, precipitated by technical developments which have made all nations neighbors in the world community, we must achieve political progress by building an effective political organization at the world level." Charles C. Price, 1952[24]
Price resigned as head of the chemistry department at Notre Dame in 1952, to campaign, and was reappointed as department head in 1954.[5]
In 1954, Price joined theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where he became the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry and chairman of the chemistry department. In 1966 he stepped down as chairman and was named the University Professor of Chemistry. In 1968 he was named the Benjamin Franklin Professor of Chemistry.[5]He continued to work in the area of polymers, and built upon his previous work with chemical warfare and disease treatment, investigating the area ofcancer treatment.[2]
Price served as president of theAmerican Chemical Society in 1965.[2] He chaired a new committee, on Chemistry and Public Affairs, and worked withArnold Thackray, head of the University of Pennsylvania department of History and Sociology of Science, to establish a Center for the History of Chemistry (CHOC).[26]
Price retired from the University of Pennsylvania as professor emeritus in 1978.[1]When CHOC was founded in 1982, Price became the founding chair of the CHOC Policy Council.[26][27] Price was instrumental in helping CHOC to obtain funding fromJohn C. Haas,[28][29]Arnold Beckman, and others.[30]In 1992, CHOC was renamed the Chemical Heritage Foundation[31]and in 2018, theScience History Institute.[32]The Charles C. Price Fellowship for postdoctoral students studying the history of science and technology was first awarded by the institution in 1999.[33]
Mary Elma (White) Price died of cancer in 1982, survived by her husband and their five children: Patricia (1938-), Susanne (1940-), Sarah (1944-), Judith (1946-) and Charles Coale IV (1948-).Charles Price remarried in 1983, to Anne Parker Gill.[2][34]He died on February 11, 2001.[2]
Price was active in theUnited World Federalists for many years.[35] The organization advocated strengthening theUnited Nations to form a world government that could resolve issues and ensure peace.[2] While in Indiana, Price served as Chairman of the St. Joseph County Chapter (1948-1950) and the Indiana State Branch (1950-1952). After moving to Philadelphia, he served as vice-president of the Philadelphia Area Council and the Pennsylvania State Branch (1955). Price also served on the National Executive Council from 1950 to 1953 and 1956 to 1965. He served as Chairman of the Statutes Committee of the World Movement for World Federal Government from 1953 to 1957. He became First Vice-president of the United World Federalists from 1958 to 1959, and President from 1959 to 1961.[35][36][37]He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting aworld constitution.[38][39] As a result, for the first time in human history, aWorld Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt theConstitution for the Federation of Earth.[40]
He encouraged scientists and government institutions to work together in support ofdisarmament and to seek peaceful solutions to economic, political, and social challenges throughout the world.[47][48]
Charles C. Price receives Army Commendation for Meritorious Civilian Service, May 20, 1958
2016, "Charles C Price, 1965 ACS President: Exploring his legacy after 50 years", Special symposium of the American Chemical Society Division of the History of Chemistry, 252nd ACS National Meeting
1974, Polyether Symposium in honor of Charles C. Price on the occasion of his receiving the Creative Invention Award of the American Chemical Society for his pioneering U.S. Patent 2,866,774 on elastomeric polyether urethanes[18][19]
^Mainz, Vera V. (August 21–25, 2016)."Professional genealogy of Charles C. Price"(PDF).American Chemical Society Division of the History of Chemistry 252nd ACS National Meeting. p. 10. Retrieved25 January 2018.
^Price, C.C.; Roberts, R.M. (July 1946). "The synthesis of 4-hydroxyquinolines; through ethoxymethylene malonic ester".Journal of the American Chemical Society.68 (7):1204–8.doi:10.1021/ja01211a020.PMID20990951.
^abVandenberg, Edwin J. (1975). "Preface".Polyethers : a symposium sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry at the 167th meeting of the American Chemical Society, Los Angeles, Calif., April 2, 1974. ACS Symposium Series. Vol. 6. Washington: American Chemical Society. pp. vii.doi:10.1021/bk-1975-0006.pr001.ISBN9780841202283.
^"Convention News".Muncie Post-Democrat,Muncie, Delaware County. 9 June 1950. Retrieved24 January 2018.
^Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 4, 1952: Showing the Highest Vote for Presidential Electors, and the Vote Cast for Each Nominee for United States Senator, Representative, Delegate, and Resident Commissioner to the Eighty-third Congress, Together with a Recapitulation Thereof, Including the Electoral Vote. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1953. p. 12.
^Price, Charles C. (1989). "Making History: The Challenge Met - And the Challenge Ahead".The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry News.6 (2):1–2.
^"The Chemical Heritage Foundation".The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry News.9 (2): 1, 16. 1992.
^abcdUnited States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on Arms Control, Oceans, and International Environment (1978).U.N. special session on disarmament: hearing before the Subcommittee on Arms Control, Oceans, and International Environment of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, second session ... April 13, 1978. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. p. 55.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Price, Charles C. (September 1983). "The Case for Disarmament: Some Personal Reflections on the United States and Disarmament".Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.469:144–154.doi:10.1177/0002716283469001014.S2CID146169731.
^PRICE, CHARLES C. (19 April 1948). "The Scientist's Stake in World Government".Chemical & Engineering News.26 (16): 1144.doi:10.1021/cen-v026n016.p1144.
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