A Moment in Alpha History: Brother Dr. Lawrence H. Knox
Today we honor “Pioneer”:
Brother Dr. Lawrence Howland Knox, a noted Chemist known for his groundbreaking scientific brilliance and was one of only 30 African Americans to receive a Ph.D. degree in all branches of chemistry in 1916. He was a charter member of the Eta Lambda Chapter in 1920. Brother Knox (b. 1906) received a B.S. from Bates College in 1928, where he participated in numerous extracurriculars, member of the Jordan Scientific Society, and lettered football as a right halfback. After graduation, he began teaching chemistry at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. After teaching at Morehouse for two years, Brother Knox attended Stanford and attained his M.S. degree in 1931. After receiving his master’s degree, Knox began teaching at that time at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, and in 1933 he transferred to North Carolina College where he headed the Chemistry Department. In 1936 he took another break from teaching and began working for his doctorate at Harvard. In 1940 he achieved a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and went back to teaching at North Carolina College. His thesis was the cutting edge of physical organic chemistry and noted by his advisor that it was “the neatest and prettiest job of any research student I have yet had’ and was considered a classic for more than half a century.
It was at America’s entrance into the Second World War that Knox’s career path changed from teaching to research. In 1944 he left his job at North Carolina College to contribute to the research of quinine (used today to treat malaria) for the Division of War Research at Columbia University. Knox’s work on quinine was meant to be used in the Manhattan project for field research on the effects of atomic bomb explosions. Knox remained at Columbia University in New York until the end of the war in 1945.
Brother Knox became a research chemist for Nopco Chemists in Harrison, New Jersey. In his three years there he was granted at least four patents. In 1948 he became the Resident Director at the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation in Katonah, New York, and remained in that post until the foundation folded in the late 1950s. Knox is credited with at least two U.S. Patents, Production of Arecoline accepted on May 2nd, 1950, and the Photochemical Preparation of Tropilidenes in 1953. He worked with Paul Doughty Bartlett on an experiment for testing organic mechanisms in chemistry which involved the use of the molecule bicyclo heptane, a type of bicyclic molecule. Additionally, he made significant contributions by publishing papers about aromatic hydrocarbon molecules and confirming the theory about aromatic hydrocarbons.
Knox took a position with Laboratorios Syntex S.A. out of Mexico City, Mexico, and from 1960 to 1965 he received almost forty patents in the field of steroid chemistry.
Brother Knox entered Omega Chapter on January 6, 1966 (he died from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the kerosene heater he had in his home office).
A notice of his death in the Bates Alumnus carried the following excerpt from a eulogy delivered: “His contribution to science is fundamental . . . his recent discoveries so important . . . that his name will remain forever in scientific literature. . .He leaves us a unique example of dynamism and enthusiasm. . . He will remain an example of courage and modesty.”
This is your moment in Alpha History.