[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 31 (Thursday, March 19, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E424-E425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO DR. SAMUEL P. MASSIE--MENTOR, LEADER, AND TOP SCIENTIST
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HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Thursday, March 19, 1998
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to my friend, and
internationally renowned scientist, Dr. Samuel P. Massie, who was
recently added to the list of the ``World's Most Distinguished
Chemists.'' I have had the privilege of knowing Sam for a great number
of years and know that he is quite deserving of this great honor.
In this era of science and high-technology, Dr. Samuel P. Massie is
the perfect role model for aspiring scientists of all races, but
particularly for African-Americans. His life is an example of the great
things they can accomplish and the impact they can have on the
sciences. His contributions helped to change the course of science and
to advance the discipline to its current priority status on the
national agenda. His work has earned him world acclaim, and the
honorable titles of Master Teacher and Scientist Extraordinare.
I recommend to our colleagues Dr. Samuel P. Massie's story, as
reported in a February 26, 1998 Washington Post article titled ``Living
Out A Formula for Success: Academy's First Black Professor Is Among
Top-Rated Chemists.'' It is my hope that they will share this wonderful
piece with the future leaders of America.
[From the Washington Post, Feb. 26, 1998]
Living Out a Formula for Success--Academy's First Black Professor Is
Among Top-Rated Chemists
(By Amy Argetsinger)
On a new roster of the world's most distinguished
chemists--Madame Curie, Linus Pauling, big names like that--
there are only three black scientists.
One is the famed agricultural scientist George Washington
Carver, who a century ago transformed the economy of the
South by developing new industrial uses for sweet potatoes
and peanuts. Another is Percy Julian, a pioneering chemist.
And the third is the only one still alive--Samuel P.
Massie, professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Though proud to be named to an elite industry list of the
all-time top 75 distinguished contributors to the field of
chemistry, Massie, now 78, welcomed the news with the breezy
modesty that has marked a lifetime of remarkable
achievements, one that gave him key vantage points to both
the development of the atomic bomb and the civil rights
turmoil of the 1960s.
``You do what you can do in that regard,'' the Laurel
resident said.
A pioneer in silicon studies and the Naval Academy's first
black professor, Massie is one of only 32 living scientists
on the list compiled last month by Chemical and Engineering
News to mark the magazine's 75th anniversary. The list
includes 35 Nobel Prize winners and celebrated names like
Kodak founder George Eastman, DNA researchers James Watson
and Francis Crick, and plutonium discoverer, Glenn Seaborg.
Born in North Little Rock, Ark., Massie rushed through
school, graduating at age 13. As a young child, he got a head
start on his peers by following his schoolteacher mother
around from class to class, enabling him to skip grades three
years in a row. Today, his personal experience has left him a
believer in classrooms blending multiple grade levels.
``Young children don't all learn at the same rate,'' he
said.
Attending A.M.N. College--now the University of Arkansas at
Pine Bluff--Massie was drawn to chemistry studies after
becoming fixated on finding a cure for his father's asthma.
After graduating at age 18, he launched into graduate studies
at Fisk University and Iowa State University, where he worked
on the Manhattan Project team, trying to convert uranium
isotopes to a usable form for the atomic bomb.
After working as a teacher at Fisk University and Howard
University, Massie was named president of North Carolina
College in 1963, as the civil rights movement was taking hold
in the region.
``Kids marching around the place, waving signs, singing `We
Shall Overcome,' '' Massie recalled. ``They were fun times.''
Massie was hired by the Naval Academy in 1966--a time when
Annapolis was still so segregated that he and his wife,
Gloria, now a psychology professor retired from Bowie State
University, were unable to find a home they wanted. Real
estate agents wouldn't even take them to certain exclusive
neighborhoods.
But Massie said he was unruffled by his introduction to the
military college, where the vast majority of students were
white in the mid-1960s.
``It wasn't difficult for me because I understood
chemistry,'' he said. ``I just had to make sure we understood
each other.''
While at the academy, Massie pursued research into anti-
bacterial agents, and with some colleagues and midshipmen
students was awarded a patent for a chemical effective in
fighting gonorrhea. He also conducted
[[Page E425]]
environmental research at the Navy's David Taylor Research
Center outside Annapolis, studying chemicals to prevent the
growth of barnacles on ship hulls and developing protective
foams to guard against nerve gases.
Massie said he found the academy, with its stringent
admission standards and emphasis on technical education, a
luxurious teaching environment.
``Scholarship is emphasized here--you knew you could expect
certain things of your students,'' he said. ``You had enough
money to have the proper equipment, and students could afford
all their books,'' unlike students at some of the civilian
colleges where he taught.
Massie said midshipmen were sometimes baffled by his
unorthodox way of scoring exams--two points for each question
they got right, but 50 points subtracted for each one they
got wrong. He was trying to prove a point to them:
``Everything in life doesn't have the same value,'' he
said. ``It depends on the circumstances.''
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