journal history: guiding the journal of chemical education

Chemical Education Today

JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 11 November 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education 1373

Journal History

Guiding the Journal of Chemical Education

It is hoped that the chemistry teachers mayglean from the above that this Journal is theirproperty, and hence criticisms, both pro andcon, are earnestly requested by editors inorder that each succeeding issue may con-tain many improvements.

[Reinmuth] wanted [the Journal] to be some-thing more than a teachers’ journal and hisconception of chemical education was toobroad to be confined within the walls of theformal classroom. He maintained a high edi-torial standard, for he felt that the readersdeserved the best.

The decade of the 1940’s was the Journal’scritical time. For successive months wescraped the barrels, financial and editorial.… Each month the editor’s desk was cleanedout, leaving us wondering where the mate-rial for the next month was coming from.

My editorial tenure, 1955–67, was at a re-markable time for science and science instruc-tion. Catalyzed by the implications of Sput-nik, the quality of science in the laboratoryand classroom became an issue of nationalimportance.

…we would wish that readers might think ofthis Journal as a place wherein countless gen-erative ideas, old and new, that form boththe substance and the catalysts for chemicalscience and chemical thought are describedwith a freshness and excitement akin to thataccompanying their discovery, and whereina thousand great chemistry teachers of thepast and present live and speak and teachand write.

…this Journal is rededicated to the proposi-tion that teachers of chemistry are also stu-dents of that subject.

The most important item in this editor’s phi-losophy is that the reader comes first. Thoughwe could not publish a journal without au-thors, it is readers who make this publicationworthwhile, useful, and yes, possible. …Ifyou are an author…we depend on you toprovide manuscripts…In return we provide aforum for your ideas.

J. J. Lagowski

From the Editor’s Standpoint

Otto Reinmuth

Neil E. Gordon

Norris Rakestraw

W. T. Lippincott

John W. Moore

William Kieffer

The next several pages provide snapshots of the periodsof service of the Journal ’s seven editors, based on poster pa-pers at the 15th BCCE and Boston ACS meetings. On the25th and 50th anniversaries of the Journal, and now on the75th, the editorial staff have reflected on what has gone be-fore. This is beneficial for both readers and staff, because theJournal is a product of synergism among its readers, authors,reviewers, staff, and editor. This is a peer-reviewed scientificjournal like many others, but with differences.

There is a tradition of interaction with the chemical edu-cation community that the Journal serves. This goes back toNeil Gordon (see below), and readers and authors have astrong sense of ownership: this is their Journal ! Over the yearseditors have tried to inform, inspire, guide, question the read-ership by means of their editorials. Vintage quotes from pasteditorials are included below and on the following pages.

There has always been scope for an editor to set a styleand guide the Journal on a particular course, but other fac-tors contribute as well. The following pages reflect the worldat large at the time as well as the Journal; depressions, wars,and Sputniks made their inevitable mark.

Digging into the past has revealed that in addition tocarrying out the major task of editing the Journal, each edi-tor has played a role in the larger scientific community. NeilGordon’s interest in scientific communication led him tofound the familiar Gordon Conferences. Otto Reinmuth si-multaneously was managing editor of J. Org. Chem. NorrisRakestraw established marine chemistry at the Scripps Insti-tute. Textbooks, curriculum projects, publications abound—some of them influencing the Journal ’s course. So, 75 yearsafter Neil Gordon with legendary energy and determinationstarted this Journal, here it is, alive and well and listening.


1374 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 11 November 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu

Neil Elbridge Gordon was born October 7, 1886. He received the Ph.B. degree fromSyracuse University in 1911, with a major in mathematics and a minor in chemistry. In1912 he received an A.M. in mathematics from Syracuse University, and in 1917, a Ph.D.in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. He married Hazel Anna Mothersell on June29, 1915. He had two children, Fortuna Lucille and Neil Jr. Fortuna Gordon, ProfessorEmerita at the University of Louisville, has written his biography, The Price of Decision:Neil Elbridge Gordon: 1886–1949. He died May 30, 1949, in Detroit, Michigan.

His academic career began at Goucher College where he was an assistant professor ofinorganic chemistry from 1917 to 1919. From 1919 to 1928 he was professor of physicalchemistry at the University of Maryland; from 1928 to 1936 he was professor of chemicaleducation at Johns Hopkins University. In 1936 he moved to Central College in Missouri,where he chaired the chemistry department until 1942, at which time he moved to WayneState University in Detroit. At Wayne State he chaired the chemistry department until1947.

Neil Gordon was known for his remarkable vigor, vast enthusiasm, and rugged deter-mination, all of which were used in the cause of communicating science. In 1924 he foundedthe Journal of Chemical Education. In 1931, while he was at Johns Hopkins University, hebegan holding small, informal conferences among leaders in research; these were knownoriginally as the Gibson Island Conferences. The conferences were established on a perma-nent basis in 1938 under the auspices of the AAAS; they were renamed the Gordon Re-search Conferences in 1948. While at Central College he acquired the Hooker ScientificLibrary, a great private collection. When he moved to Wayne State he was able to purchaseand move the library to Detroit, where it was remains today as the Kresge-Hooker Library.

Journal History

Neil E. Gordon, Founding Editor, 1924–1932

The facts are that the teachingof our great science is worthyof our best young men andwomen. A river never risesabove its source nor are welikely to graduate greaterchemists than we find in ourteaching profession.JCE 1924, 1, 85

[A] good executive, a fine organizer, and a promoter of inexhaustible energy… Iwas then, and still am, fascinated by the riddle of his achievements. He had none ofthe aspect nor mannerisms of the supersalesman. Whatever aspirations towardscientific scholarship he may once have entertained, he early recognized his ownpeculiar abilities as an organizer and promoter, and subordinated all else to thefurtherance of projects which he felt would advance the cause of chemistry andchemical education. …he would engage the best talent the funds at his disposalcould secure, regardless of any possibility that their scientific achievements mightovershadow his own.

Otto Reinmuth about Neil GordonGRC 50 Years in New Hampshire, Program, 1997

Since it was now December10, a quick decision had to bemade if we were to bring outthe first issue with the begin-ning of the year.

JCE 1943, 20, 369

Typical Articles in Volume IEditor’s OutlookWhat We Teach Our Freshmen in ChemistryThe Response of High School Pupils to Chemical

EducationWhat Kind of Research Is Essential to Good TeachingThe Advantages of Laboratory Work in the Study

of Elementary ChemistryThe Teaching of BiochemistryMotion Pictures as an Aid in Teaching ChemistryChemical Reactions Visualized for Beginners



Otto Reinmuth, Second Editor, 1933–1940

My introduction to the JOURNAL was rather casual. As a part-timegraduate student I was employed by the Maryland Free State as aninspector and analyst (of feeds, fertilizers, and limes), and Dr. Neil E.Gordon, automatically State Chemist by virtue of his chairmanship of thechemistry department of the University of Maryland, was my chief. Forsome occult reason he decided that my talents were better adapted tojournalistic than to regulatory pursuits. He measured out a pile of manu-scripts by the simple expedient of estimating its thickness with thumb andforefinger, informed me that this was the next JOURNAL, and dubbed meassistant to the editor. Armed with youthful energy, self-confidence, and aprinter’s manual of copyreaders’ symbols, I set to work.JCE, 1948, 25, 646.

That the JOURNAL survived allthat happened to it immedi-ately preceding and during myregime as editor I attribute tothe fact that it really embodieda worthwhile idea…JCE, 1948, 25, 646.

Otto Reinmuth was born in 1900. He did his graduate work with Neil Gordon at theUniversity of Maryland and was first Gordon’s assistant editor (see below) and then hisassociate editor, a position that he held until Gordon retired as editor in 1932. During histenure Reinmuth moved the editorial office from the University of Maryland to the Uni-versity of Chicago.

At the University of Chicago Reinmuth collaborated with his friend Morris S. Kharaschon a textbook of organic chemistry (Grignard Reactions of Nonmetallic Substances). He alsobecame the managing editor of the Journal of Organic Chemistry when it was founded in1936, a position he held simultaneously with the Journal editorship. He synthesized a longlist of pharmaceuticals and also published many articles in this Journal, including one se-ries on the electron in organic chemistry and another on the structure of matter.

When Reinmuth became editor in the midst of an economic depression he did so with-out the previous substantial support of The Chemical Foundation, Inc., which had beenobtained through the interest of Francis P. Garvan. His diligence enabled the Journal tosurvive this period and also to make visible changes—the page size became essentially aswe know it and covers were more graphic and changed each month.

Reinmuth was a quiet man, unable to feel at home in a crowd. Photographs, too, aredifficult to locate. Norris Rakestraw has characterized him as “too reticent for his owngood….At the same time, his personal influence upon the field of chemical education willbe no less profound for being largely unrecognized.” He died on June 23, 1956.

Few of us recognize thedangers of false ambition. Wewould do well to convince firstourselves and then others thatit is not more honorable tobe…a nonentity amongscientists than a jewel amonglaboratory technicians.JCE, 1941, 10, 66.

Advertising pro-v ided much-needed revenueand also revealsmuch about thetimes. Ads wereof ten on thecover.



Journal History

Norris Rakestraw, Third Editor, 1940–1955

Norris Watson Rakestraw was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1895. He entered the Univer-sity of Toledo in 1912 but transferred to Stanford University in 1913. He continued atStanford, earning a Ph.D. in 1921. He also studied at Yale and Cambridge. He was aninstructor during his graduate career at Stanford and then spent a year as assistant profes-sor at Oberlin before he joined the faculty of Brown University, where he remained until1946. He left Brown in 1946 and moved the Journal to Scripps Institution of Oceanogra-phy at La Jolla, California, to establish a program in marine chemistry. He was not only aprominent marine chemist and but also an administrator at the University of California,San Diego; he was Dean of Students and then later the first Dean of the Graduate School.

Despite the fact that his editorship came at a very difficult juncture, during his tenureas editor he nearly doubled the circulation, paid off debts and even accumulated a smallsurplus, and overcame shortages of manuscripts. He established continuing features includingOut of the Editor’s Basket (1940) and Tested Demonstrations (1955).

He was active in the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers while he was atBrown University and helped with the founding of the Pacific Coast Association of Chem-istry Teachers after moving to California. He was known for his exciting lecture demonstra-tions as well as his prowess as a diver. He received the James Flack Norris Award of the ACSNortheastern Section in 1956 and the ACS Award in Chemical Education in 1957. Hebecame Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institute at the University of California, SanDiego in 1965. He died in Morongo Valley, California, in December 1982, at the age of 87.

My recollection of theJournal’s years from 1940to 1955 brings back manymemories, not the dimmestof which is the memory ofa continual pressure forincreased circulation.

[We] set out to increase theactual chemical content ofour pages. We hunted forreview articles, but at asomewhat more elementarylevel than that of theprofessional reviewjournals.JCE, 1973, 50, 801

The editor of a journal such as ours has anopportunity to express his personality and toinfluence his readers much more than does aneditor of one of the subject-matter researchjournals. I feel that the 180 editorials which I wroteduring my term are a major part of my contributionto the fields of chemistry and education. If anyoneis curious about my personal educational philoso-phy there is where he will find it.JCE, 1973, 50, 801

The Journal has served the fieldof chemical education fortwenty-five years and I think it isnot mere boasting to suggestthat its influence is partlyresponsible for the fact that inno other professional field ofscience is so much thought andattention given to the problemsof education and training.JCE, 1948, 25, 645

Norris Rakestraw turnsover the editor’s bluepencil to Bill Kieffer,shown on the May 16,1955, cover of Chemi-cal and EngineeringNews.



William F. Kieffer, Fourth Editor, 1955–1967

Elaine and BillKieffer are shownhere at the Journal’s75th anniversarycelebration at theACS Meeting inBoston in August1998.

When I reflect on all theinfluences, both on what wewere teaching and on how wewere teaching it, those years1955–1967 appear indeed tohave been a watershed periodfor chemical education.JCE, 1980, 57, 33

The Resource Papers series publishedwith the cooperative support of theAC3 not only brought subjects toteachers’ attention, but provided thebackground information that madepossible bringing the subject into theclassroom.JCE, 1973, 50, 801

William F. Kieffer is Wilson Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at The College of Wooster.He lives in Walnut Creek, California.

He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1915. He received his education at The Col-lege of Wooster (B.A. in 1936), Ohio State University (M.Sc. in 1938), and Brown Uni-versity (Ph.D. in 1940 for work in photochemistry). He first joined the faculty of TheCollege of Wooster in 1940, moved to Western Reserve University in 1942, and returnedto Wooster as Professor of Chemistry in 1946. He has been visiting professor at the Uni-versity of Washington, U. S. Naval Academy, and the University of California-Santa Cruz.

Kieffer has been an NSF Science Faculty Fellow at MIT, a Research Participant inRadiation Chemistry at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Visiting Scientist in Chemistryfor the National Science Foundation, and a visiting scholar at Stanford University. He servedon the Advisory Council of College Chemistry, sponsored by NSF, and chaired the ACSAdvisory Committee for the National Broadcasting Company for the television series “Con-tinental Classroom”. He was a member of the writing team of the NSF–ACS-sponsoredChem Tec Project, which planned and prepared curricular materials for a two-year courseto train chemical technicians in community colleges.

He has described his term as editor as one of great change in the education commu-nity: “Chemistry in the college and university classroom changed dramatically during thistime. The old struggle between theoretical and descriptive influences on the content of thefirst course almost disappeared in favor of the theoretical.”

He is a writer as well as an editor. Kieffer is the author of the book The Mole Conceptin Chemistry and of papers published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, In-dustrial and Engineering Chemistry, and the Journal of Chemical Education. He has writtentwo textbooks for nonscience majors: Chemistry, a Cultural Approach and Chemistry Today.In 1965 Kieffer was presented with a Catalyst Award by the Manufacturing Chemists As-sociation and in 1968 he received the ACS Award in Chemical Education.

Chemistry and chemistryinstruction are constantlychanging. So will this Journalas future Editors will adhere tothe aims established by itsfounders.JCE, 1973, 50, 801

The two most available sources of chemicalinformation the student has are his text and hisprofessor. These should be distinguished fromeach other by observing that the latter is alive.The classes in which this is most obvious will bethose from which our supply of future scientists forboth the laboratory and the classroom will come.JCE, 1955, 32, 549

After January 1959 there were no more ads on the cover.



Journal History

W. T. Lippincott, Fifth Editor, 1967–1979

Perhaps it is not too trite to suggest that all ofthe exciting new knowledge, all the importantnew research, all the great new ideasdeveloped by our generation and those thatpreceded us have neither lasting meaning norreal significance unless the young people oftoday and tomorrow can appreciate themenough to use them in discovery and buildingthe better world for which they search.JCE, 1967, 44, 489

As guardians, interpreters,and transmitters of the moralcode of a great science,teachers of chemistry havevery important work to do.

JCE, 1979, 56, 355.

And for the teacher who worries some abouthis standards, examinations and judgmentthere is at least some consolation in recallingthat very likely no student ever returned tothank him for making it easy, but a goodnumber probably returned to thank him forproving to them that they could do a gooddeal more with their minds and their energiesthan they ever believed possible.JCE, 1973, 50, 449.

Chem 13 News Digest

Chem Ed Compacts

Chemical Principles Exemplified

Chemical Principles Revisited

Eco-Chem

High School Forum

William T. Lippincott, known to friends and acquaintances as Tom, lives in Tucson,Arizona, and Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. Lippincott is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. Hereceived a B.S. from Capital University (Columbus, Ohio) and a Ph.D. in 1954 from OhioState University. He has taught at Capital University (1948–1952), Ohio State University(1952–1954 and 1961–1973), Michigan State University (1954–1957), the University ofFlorida (1957–1961), and the University of Arizona (1974–1984).

Lippincott’s Journal years are known for the introduction and encouragement of manyfeature columns that represent its diverse audience. As an editor he was known for his par-ticularly thoughtful editorials—sometimes reflecting, sometimes encouraging, sometimesgently chiding. A sampling appears here.

His teaching career was spent in the general chemistry programs of several large uni-versities. He utilized numerous innovative techniques, including the use of computers andfilms and the display of information onto large screens. He received numerous awards forhis teaching: the Manufacturing Chemists Association Award (1966), the ACS Award forChemical Education (1975), and the James Flack Norris Award of the Northeast Sectionof the ACS (1982).

In addition to editorial responsibilities with the Journal, Lippincott was very active inchemical education in general and served on a number of major projects and committees.He is co-author of the text General Chemistry (with A. B. Garrett and F. Verhoek) andeditor of Essays in Physical Chemistry: A Sourcebook for Physical Chemistry Teachers; he wasprincipal investigator of the NSF project from which came the current text ChemCom:Chemistry in the Community.

Bill Kieffer has said of Lippincott: “I spoke of pedagogic innovation; I am led to recallthe most significant contribution I made to the success of the Journal. That contributionwas the selection and persuasion of Tom Lippincott to inherit my blue pencil.”

Features from 1967–1979

Impact

Interface Series

Provocative Opinion

Resource Papers

Textbook Errors

View from My Classroom



J. J. Lagowski, Sixth Editor, 1979–1996

“No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe.” Donne’s meditation is easilytransferred to the person who was,is, and will be, editor of this or anyjournal. No editor is an island. …The Editor of the Journal rides on thetide generated by his staff, hisreviewers, and his readers.JCE 1996, 73, 695

The bedrock on which the Journalhas been built is its numerousreviewersJCE 1996, 73, 695

Born in Chicago, J. J. Lagowski graduated from the University of Illinois atChampaign-Urbana in 1952. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State Univer-sity in 1957 and then spent the next two years at Cambridge University. In 1959he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a Professor ofChemistry and also of Education. Since 1993 he has served as Director of the In-stitute for Science and Mathematics Education.

He supervises a research group working on a wide spectrum of problems inchemistry and in education. His publications cover a broad area: chemistry educa-tion, solution chemistry, organometallic chemistry, transition metal chemistry, andchemistry instruction. They include books, book chapters, books in series, labora-tory manuals, and editorials. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including theACS George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education (1989).

Joe Lagowski served as editor longer than any of his predecessors. The Journalexperienced enlargements (the introduction of the Secondary School Section earlyin his term and JCE Software near the middle), innovations (such as the State of theArt Series), and all-encompassing changes (the switch to in-house computerized desk-top publishing). Portions from editorials that he has selected as his best appear be-low, as do Journal covers.

For the educated layman who cannot understandscience, the alternative to a priestly elite in ademocracy is to vote science out. Given thesealternatives, can scientists afford not to expand theresources, both mental and physical to insure thatthe education of non-scientists is taken at least asseriously as we make of science students? Ademocratic elimination of science would make usslaves of a different sort.JCE 1981, 58, 597

It has become increasingly clear that a number of major issues need attention if we are toengage effectively in triage as a process to maximize what can—and should—be savedin higher education. The following list summarizes discussions that have appeared in avariety of disparate publications.

• Establish and prioritize the institution’s educational goals.• Establish value and reward systems for students and faculty that are consistent

with the priority goals.• Develop leverage and constraint mechanisms to effect change and improve student

orientation to the new priorities• Establish a relationship between the price and cost of education and access to it,

perhaps incorporating some sort of internal subsidy system.• Develop a relationship between the demonstration of public accountability through

the reallocation of resources and the measurement of tangible outcomes thatjustified enhanced public and private investment.

• Devise a use of technology that improves productivity, which in turn requires thedefinition of productivity in an academic setting.

JCE 1995, 72, 861

Joe Lagowski is shown enjoying theJournal’s 75th anniversary celebrationsthe recent ACS Meeting in Boston.



Journal History

John W. Moore, Seventh Editor, 1996–

John Moore was born in Pennsylvania in 1939. He received the A.B. from Franklin &Marshall College in 1961 and the Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1965, concen-trating in physical inorganic chemistry. He held an NSF postdoctoral fellowship at theUniversity of Copenhagen and then taught at Indiana and Eastern Michigan Universitiesbefore joining the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1989.

Concern for teaching and students is the focus of his career, manifested in projectsthat include curriculum reform (the New Traditions chemistry curriculum project), teacherworkshops (the Institute for Chemical Education), and dissemination of educational ma-terials (Project SERAPHIM). He has written several texts, including ones for general chem-istry (The Chemical World and Chemistry), environmental chemistry (Environmental Chem-istry), and kinetics (Kinetics and Mechanism).

Moore was co-editor of the Computer Series in this Journal when the first article ap-peared in 1979. It was the intention of the series to delineate the state of the art of com-puter usage while at the same time accommodating the needs and background of readerswith little or no computer expertise. Then in 1988 he founded Journal of Chemical Educa-tion: Software. One of its primary aims was to give authors of software genuine publicationcredit for their work. He has received many awards for his teaching and his work in chemi-cal education in general, including the CMA Catalyst Award (1982), ACS George C.Pimentel Award in Chemical Education (1991), and the James Flack Norris Award (1991).

Much of his educational philosophy is captured in the quotes taken from editorialsthat are on this page. Other insights were expressed in the FIPSE Lectures in Chemistry,which he organized in 1988. Under the title of “Chemistry Plus Technology Plus TeachersYields Curricular Change”, the message of these lectures can be summed up: “Though tech-nology could help to speed the assimilation of factual material, this is not the theme thatruns through the four FIPSE Lectures. Instead there is general consensus that technologyprovides for a richer, more diverse environment within which students can learn. Many ofthe applications of technology allow for a more inductive approach to the subject—stu-dents are encouraged to experiment, to develop hypotheses, and to proceed on the basis oftheir observations and conclusions instead of being asked to memorize a set of facts. Stimu-lation for, and freedom to develop what Einstein called ‘the holy curiosity of inquiry’ canbe provided in many ways by technology as well as by human teachers.”

The students…are crying out forteachers who respect themenough to ask for their very bestperformanceJCE, 1998, 75, 255

Applying to the problem ofimproving undergraduateeducation the same kind ofthought and creativity that gointo research projects issomething we all should domore often.JCE, 1998, 75, 935

If we tell students how to answer everyquestion…, then how can we expectthem…to learn how to learn on their own?JCE, 1997, 74, 613

[V]olunteer to join us in theexciting task of encouraging anddisseminating excellence inchemical education.JCE, 1997, 74, 5

In a world in which change is thenorm, only an educated student hasbeen properly equipped to prosper.JCE, 1998, 75, 135

journal history: guiding the journal of chemical education

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