University of Illinois - Illio Yearbook (Urbana Champaign, IL)

Page 20 text:

ARTHUB II. 1. 1 AM PALMER 22

Page 19 text:

JflHWfl 0St mm tate fe fkPHf i if -- -« i a n »I

Page 21 text:

ArtHtir William Palmer T7T RTHPR WILLIAM PALMER was born in London, England, Feb. 17, 1861. ] He came with his parents to America at the age of five, his home being first 1[ at Elgin and later at Springfield, Illinois. He entered the University in the •if Li fall of 1879, and graduated with the class of 1883. During his senior year he served as second assistant in chemistry, and for the year following he held the position of first assistant. Entering the Graduate School of Harvard in 1884 he was awarded a Morgan fellowship, which he held for two years, receiving the degree of Doctor of Science. Returning to Illinois he again held the appointment of first assistant in chemistry for two years. At the end of this time the head of the department, Dr. Wm. McMurtrie resigned, anil it seemed to Dr. Palmer that he had rightfully earned recog- tion as the successor to that position. Being disappointed in this he left the Univer- sity for study abroad. A telegram from the University proffering the desired posi- tion failed to reach him before embarking, hence his long cherished plan for study in German laboratories was carried out. His first semester was spent at Gottingen in the private laboratory of Victor Meyer. The second semester was spent under Dr. Hoffman at Berlin. Meanwhile chemical affairs in Illinois bad gone badly. The new appointee had retired after one term of service, and substitutes had completed the work of the year. In response to a cable message Dr. Palmer returned, and took up the work again in the fall of 1889, receiving the appointment of assistant professor of chemistry. In 1890 he was promoted to the professorship of chemistry, and this position he held until his death, being therefore in his nineteenth year of instructional service in the University of Illinois. Dr. Palmer was a member of the American Public Health Association, the Ameri- can Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, and the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft, Berlin. His greatest work, and the one by which he is best known among chemists, was the very difficult and long considered im- possible establishment of the series of compounds known as the arsines, homologous in composition, and related in character to the well known amine and phosphine groups. Since 1.895 he has been in charge of the chemical survey of the waters of Illinois, and his second report just published, covering the years from 1897 to 1902, is a monument to his ability and indefatigable energy. Rarely gifted as a lecturer, profoundly and widely versed in his chosen Held, skillful and also tireless as an investigator; the University has lost one of her most efficient servants, and science one of her most bril- liant representatives.