Henry Cecil McBay
Henry Cecil McBay made discoveries that allowed chemists around the world to create inexpensive peroxide compounds which were useful as building blocks in many chemical reactions.
● Norton Prize (for Excellence at Research in Chemistry) at University of Chicago, in 1944.
● Norton Prize (for Excellence at Research in Chemistry) at University of Chicago, in 1945.
● — “E.A.Jones (Edward A. Jones)/H.C.McBay/E.B.Williams Award (for Excellence in Teaching)” established at Morehouse College, in 1973.
● Outstanding Teacher, named by the National Association for Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, in 1976.
● The Herty Award (for Outstanding Contributions to Chemistry) from the American Chemical Society of Georgia, in 1976.
● The Norris Award (for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry) from the American Chemical Society of the Northeast, in 1978.
● The Kimuel Huggins Award (for Outstanding Contributions of Chemistry, Human Endeavors) from Bishop College, in 1980.
● E. A.Jones (Edward A. Jones)/H.C.McBay/E.B. Williams Award (for Excellence in Teaching) from Morehouse College, in 1981.
● — “Henry Cecil McBay Endowed Chemistry Scholarship” (for students) established at Morehouse College, in 1986.
● Honorary Doctor of Science, from Atlanta University, in 1987.
●– “Nabrit-Mapp-McBay” Science Building dedicated at Morehouse College, in 1989.
● Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Scholar, appointed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990-1991.
● American Scholar Award, from Delta Chapter of Georgia of Phi Beta Kappa, in 1991.
● “Superstar of Science” named, among others, by EBONY magazine, in 1991.
● Honorary Doctor of Science, granted by Atlanta’s Emory University, in 1992.
● Honorary Doctor of Science, granted by Bowie State University, in 1993.
● — “Henry Cecil McBay Research Fellowships” (for faculty members) established by the United Negro College Fund, in 1995.
● — “Henry C.R. McBay Chair in Space Sciences” established (posthumously) jointly by Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, in 1996.
● Honorary Doctor of Science, granted (posthumously) by Morehouse College, in 1996.
● Patent (for Fire Extinguishing Capsule), issued (posthumously), in 1997.
● Patent (for Device For The Synthesis Of Dimeric Species), issued (posthumously), in 1999.
Henry Cecil McBay was a renowned chemist and educator for over 41 years. He was born May 29, 1914 in Mexia, Texas. Because of his proficiency in math, McBay was able to gain admission to Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, after graduating from Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School at the age of sixteen. Inspired by his math and chemistry professors, McBay studied organic chemistry and earned his B.S. degree in 1934. His Wiley professors helped him acquire a scholarship to Atlanta to work on his next degree. With only $1.65 in his pocket, McBay took a job in the Atlanta University dining hall so he could eat.
McBay entered the graduate chemistry program at Atlanta University. After only a few days on campus, his faculty advisor, Professor K.A. Huggins, arranged for him to work in the chemistry laboratory. McBay began to help Huggins study new types of plastics that had properties similar to natural rubber. Soon, McBay was performing his own analysis of the plastics. When the project was finished, McBay received his master’s degree from Atlanta University. After earning his master’s degree in 1936 from Atlanta University, McBay returned to Wiley College so he could help his younger brother and sister pay for college.
During the next several years, McBay taught at Wiley College (1936–38); Western University (1938–39) in Quindaro, Kansas; and as a high school teacher in Huntsville, Alabama (1939–40). In 1939, he enrolled at the University of Chicago as a summer student and took a course taught by the chairman of the chemistry department. McBay was one of the outstanding students in the course. From 1941 to 1942, McBay joined a newly formed research team at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama assigned the task of finding a suitable substitute for jute fiber. Jute, which was used for rope and fabrics for sacks, a plant native to India, had ended due to World War II.
The Tuskegee team hoped to prove that okra stems would be an effective substitute, but McBay proved that by the time an okra plant had matured, the stems were too brittle. Okra could be harvested for food or for fiber, but not for both. However, after a year of work, the idea was abandoned and McBay’s position there ended in 1942. In 1942 McBay accepted a teaching assistant’s position at the University of Chicago and resumed his doctoral studies. This move also kept him out of the U.S. military: the government needed large numbers of chemistry graduates and was not drafting people in those positions. He demonstrated his love of teaching by designing a chemistry course for first-year college course.
In 1944, McBay chose Professor Morris Kharasch as his research advisor. While there, McBay began to learn very specialized techniques in handling dangerous compounds. McBay began to create highly explosive materials that offered great value as chemical building blocks. He subsequently developed new methods of producing a dangerous compound from hydrogen peroxide. Discoveries by McBay allowed chemists around the world to create inexpensive peroxide compounds which are extremely useful as building blocks in many chemical reactions. As a result of that research, McBay received the Elizabeth Norton for excellence in chemical research in 1944 and 1945.
His dissertation focused on his hydrogen peroxide project. Based on this research, he was awarded a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1945. In 1951, McBay developed a chemistry education program in Liberia on behalf of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). McBay then returned to Atlanta as an assistant professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta. In 1956, he was appointed chairman of the chemistry department. In 1982 he transferred to his old school, Atlanta University, and became the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry there. One of McBay’s main goals was to pass along his love for chemistry to his students.
McBay regularly demonstrated how two materials could be combined to produce something with completely different properties. He wanted his students to share his fascination with such processes, which he believed to be minor miracles. One of his frequent demonstrations combined a metallic poison, sodium, with a gaseous poison, chlorine, to produce table salt. McBay mentored dozens of students from historically Black colleges and universities who ultimately earned doctoral degrees. In 1990, McBay was appointed as the first Martin Luther King Jr. visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught part-time until his death in 1995.