Obituaries
Raj Khanna, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and member of the faculty from 1967 until his retirement in 2003, died in late June. He obtained his university degrees in India, came first to Oregon State University (1964) then to the University of Maryland as Research Associate (1964-67). He joined the faculty in 1967 and became professor in 1982. He became Emeritus faculty in 2003 and maintained research in infrared measurements with recent support from NASA. Having approximately 100 research publications, and having mentored 19 graduate students who obtained their advanced degrees, Raj Khanna contributed to the department's reputation in research and education.
Calvin F. Stuntz, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and member of the faculty from 1947 until his retirement in 1979, died in November 2007. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Buffalo in 1939 and taught high school chemistry for a year before taking a position as chemist at Linde Air Products, then at the Naval Research Laboratory. After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1947 he joined the University of Maryland. He taught quantitative analysis for thirty-two years and was Director of Undergraduate Programs for five years prior to his retirement.
Emeritus Professor Chester Eric "Chet" Holmlund, 86, who taught biochemistry at the University of Maryland, College for more than a quarter-century, died of congestive heart failure September 29 at his home in Brevard, N.C. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1943 and served as a meteorologist in the Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II. After his discharge, he worked for the DuPont Corporation, then spent a year studying at the University of Uppsala in Sweden after which he returned to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to obtain a master’s degree in chemistry (1951). Three years later he received a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin. He spent the next 13 years at Lederle Laboratories in Pearl River, N.Y., before coming to Maryland in 1967. He retired from Maryland in 1989, and continued to teach until 1993.To stimulate and broaden his students, Dr. Holmlund wrote poetry on a blackboard before each class lecture on chemical and biochemical processes.
Mary Bailey, stalwart of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, passed away on October 29, 2007 in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was ill for a short time with pancreatic cancer. Mary Caroline Worsham was born in 1924 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and received a BSE in Chemical Engineering in 1945 on an accelerated program and in 1949 was one of the first women to earn an MSE, also in Chemical Engineering. She went to work as a chemical process engineer for Steams Pharmaceuticals in Detroit. She later became an instructor in Chemical Engineering at Wayne University in Detroit, where she met William John Bailey, who was a young professor of Chemistry. They were married in1949. When Bill Bailey took a position as professor of Chemistry at the University of Maryland in 1951, the couple moved to College Park, Maryland. Mary worked for the American Chemical Society as a technical writer. The first Bailey "Christmas Letter" was written in 1952. Although very busy with her family, Mary said she never regretted getting a sitter and accompanying Bill to many conferences both here and abroad. After Bill Bailey's death in 1989 she "downsized" to a small house at Leisure World in Silver Spring Maryland. In recent years she wrote two compilations of memoirs/letters that she self-published. She is survived by her three children, her older sister Jane, and a granddaughter, Bailey Jane Deal Skrocki.
William A. Stanton (1915-2008, Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland in 1936, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1941) had a distinguished career at E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company. Initially hired as a chemist at their Parlin, New Jersey Research Laboratory, he became a group leader in 1946, beginning a long and distinguished career in the management of what would become Du Pont's Photo Products Division. In 1964 he became Director of the Printing and Industrial Sales Division following company reorganization. In 1967 Dr. Stanton was made Director of the International Operations Division, with responsibility for all research, marketing, and manufacturing outside the United States and Canada. He held that position until his retirement in September of 1980. During his world-wide travels for Du Pont, Dr. Stanton developed a life-long interest in food and wine. He was particularly knowledgeable about German white wines and the red wines of Burgundy.