James Flack Norris

For whom are named the Northeastern Section Award for excellence in teaching of chemistry and the Award in Physical Organic Chemistry. Both awards, sponsored by the Northeastern Section of the ACS, are made possible through the will of Mrs. Norris, paragraph three, dated May 13, 1946 and affirmed by her codicil, dated May 21, 1947. In this will Mrs. Norris directed that the half of the residue of her estate passing to the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society be used as the Directors deem wise in their discretion to perpetuate the memory of her husband, James F. Norris.

When James F. Norris began his assistantship in the Chemistry Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in October 1895, he was twenty-four years old and fresh from the doctorate awarded by Johns Hopkins University in June of that year. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, January 20, 1871, he was one of nine children of the Reverend and Mrs. Richard Norris (Methodist). His elementary schooling was at Miss Jennie Gardner's School for Boys in Georgetown, D. C., where his father was serving as a pastor. Later he attended the Central High School in Washington. While in this school, he was a member of the Drum Corps, High School Cadets. Secondary education completed, he enrolled in Johns Hopkins University in 1889 and remained through years of graduate study, leading to the doctorate in chemistry in 1895. At what exact age chemistry began to hold his interest is not certain but it must have been before 1892 when he was teaching this subject in the University of Maryland. His final year at J.H.U., 1894-5, was brightened by an appointment as a Fellow (stipend $375, plus tuition). His life long pursuit of travel in summer, chiefly in Europe, began at this time. In 1892 he became the official delegate of the students of Johns Hopkins University to the 300th Celebration of the University of Dublin. In the summer of 1894 he worked with the U.S. Coast Survey, stationed at Lynn, Massachusetts. The summer of 1896 saw him, with Henry Fay (M.I.T.), touring England, France and Germany.

Not only teaching in the University of Maryland, but coaching classes in mathematics and science, in his final graduate year, at Johns Hopkins had, in a sense, prepared him for a life long devotion to teaching and research. In his first classes at M.I.T. he was associated with James Mason Crafts (of the Friedel and Crafts reaction) and gave a course in Organic preparations. The next year he added a series of lectures on the history of chemistry. In 1899 he gave the brief course in organic chemistry and became associated with Arthur Amos Noyes in the laboratory pursuit of organic preparations and reactions. The year 1900 saw him advanced to the rank of assistant professor of organic chemistry and engaged to Anne Bent Chamberlin, a student at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

On February fourth, 1902, Anne and he were married in St. John's Church, Washington, D. C. where her parents made their home while she was a student at the Museum. Henry Fay, also a young professor at M.I.T. and a close friend, was best man at the wedding. The new Norris family took up residence at 124 Anawan Avenue, West Roxbury (Boston), near the home of Professor Frank H. Thorp of M.I.T., already working on his "Outlines of Industrial Chemistry," a text book for students, destined to be widely used. (First edition, October 1898, the third edition, in 1916, in collaboration with Warren K. Lewis, Professor of Chemical Engineering at M.I.T.)

The life-long friendship with Henry Fay began when both men came to M.I.T. as assistants in chemistry in 1895. Together they published their method for the "Iodometric Determination of Selenous and Selenic Acids" in volume 18, 1896, of the American Chemical Journal. This paper was the first bearing the name of Dr. Norris. It was followed at once by his thesis for the doctorate, "The Action of Halogens on the Methylamines" with Ira Remsen, appearing in the same journal, volume 19, 1896. These two papers head the list of seventy publications, mostly in the American Chemical Journal and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Four books, all published by McGraw Hill, also came from his pen. The first, "The Principles of Organic Chemistry" 1912, third edition, 1933, total issue over 70,000. The second book, "Experimental Organic Chemistry," 1915, third edition, 1933, total issue also over 70,000. His textbook, "Inorganic Chemistry for Colleges" was published in 1921, third edition with Professor Ralph C. Young of M.I.T. in 1938. "Laboratory Exercises in Inorganic Chemistry," co-author Professor Kenneth L. Mark of Simmons College, appeared in 1922.

In 1900, advancement to Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry at M.I.T. gave him a larger share in the chemistry department. In spite of this favorable development, his official connection with M.I.T. was interrupted in 1904 by appointment to Professor of Chemistry at Simmons College, organized in Boston in 1899 and destined to be known, for a time, as the M.I.T. for women students. Through eleven years he devoted himself to building up the chemistry department at Simmons. While at Simmons, he took a sabbatical leave in 1910 to study physical chemistry with Professor Fritz Haber in the Technische Hochschule at Karlsruhe in Baden, Germany. With Mrs. Norris be took up living quarter; in a pension in Karlsruhe. Dr. Norris always took great satisfaction from this phase of his post-doctoral experience. He found, increasingly, that the physical chemical points of view he gained, gave him new insight into organic chemistry. The year was not all laboratory work. Dr. and Mrs. Norris passed a winter vacation in Berlin and Dresden. In the spring recess they traveled in Italy. During the summer of 1911, three of Dr. Norris' sisters joined them for a grand tour, including Paris, Holland, England, and Scotland.

Came the year 1915, Dr. Norris resigned his position at Simmons to accept the professorship of chemistry in Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Association with this outstanding University in the Southland, although very rewarding, was to be for only one year.

In June, 1916, he was asked to return to M.I.T. where, in October, he became Professor of General Chemistry. When he left Vanderbilt, students and staff combined to present him with a silver cigarette case, bearing the inscription "Sunny Jim." This appellation he accepted with great pleasure. In fact, all of his associates, both at that time and thereafter, recognized his new name as most descriptive of his general disposition and character.

By the autumn of 1916, World War I, increasing in fury in Western Europe for two years, had been building up a condition of deep concern for the United States. In October 1917, Dr. Norris was granted leave of absence from M.I.T. for one year, to "render special service to the government in the present emergency." He worked first at the Bureau of Mines in Washington, D. C., on gas problems. Later he was in charge of "Offence Chemical Research" at the Bureau. Early in 1918 he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel, Chemical Warfare Service, U.S. Army. His headquarters were in London. In 1919 he was appointed to the Interallied Gas Conference. Finally, (1919) Dr. Norris was in charge of investigating the manufacture of war gases in the German chemical plants. His final war service was with the American University at Beaunne, France. Honorably discharged from the service in July 1919, he returned to Boston to resume duties at M.I.T.

This renewed association with M.I.T, was to be enjoyed for twenty-one years, until his death on August 3, 1940. He remarked of his position, as Professor of Organic Chemistry, that it was the kind of job he had wanted all his life. Graduate students came from far and wide to work with him on researches leading to advanced degrees.

Dr. Norris' service to chemistry broadened with his association with M.I.T. He was an early chairman of the Northeastern Section (1904). All of his life he remained very loyal to his home section. In 1924 he became chairman of the Section on Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the National Research Council in Washington, D. C. He was granted a leave of absence from M.I.T. for this work. However, he was in Boston two days each week and thus able to keep in contact with his graduate students. In 1925 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In the same year he was elected President of the American Chemical Society, a position he held for a second term. For three years, 1925-1928, he was Vice President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Eventually, association with the Union took him on several trips abroad, to Rumania in 1925, to Warsaw in 1927, to Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1936, and to Rome, Italy, in 1938. His long term as a Director of the national American Chemical Society ended in 1934 with a testimonial luncheon in New York

Two other activities were also in this period. First came the address on "Chemistry in National Defense" before the Institute of Politics at Williamstown, Massachusetts, in August 1926. Second, in June, 1928, he was chosen a member of the educational Delegation to the USSR, of which John Dewey of Columbia was chairman.

From early years, Dr. Norris was asked to be a special lecturer on organic chemistry at several different colleges. The first of these lectureships was at Simmons College in 1903. Next came Harvard for two years, 1912 to 1913. Among his students at Harvard was Louis P. Hammett who, inspired by Dr. Norris, became the founder of physical organic chemistry in America. In 1913 he lectured on organic chemistry at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He had three periods of extended association with Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine. This was the college of Hawthorne, Longfellow and President Franklin Pierce. In January 1925 Dr. Norris was named visiting professor at Bowdoin. In 1929 and in 1931 he was again a visiting Professor at Bowdoin. The college conferred on him her honorary Sc.D. in 1925.

A very important part of the life of Professor and Mrs. Norris was the several summers they passed at North Bridgton on Long Lake in western Maine. There they built a house in 1906 after plans drawn by Professor Harry W. Gardner of the Department of Architecture at M.I.T. They named their summer home "Good Cheer." The center of social life of their home was the "porch" where, often, there were record dances in the evening. Dr. Norris had a den for study and writing detached from the main house where he worked every morning, writing on his books. After lunch he swam in the lake with companions and in the evening mingled with guests on the porch.

Dr. and Mrs. Norris were patrons of the art galleries both in the United States and in Europe. Dr. Norris was an ardent movie fan and a devoted follower of Sir Harry W. Lauder, Scottish comedian and entertainer for half a century. Many people, still living [that was in 1965!, ed.], will recall such Harry Lauder songs as, "I Love a Lassie," "Roamin' in the Gloamin"' and "Its Nice to Get Up in the Mornin' but its Nicer to Lie in My Baid."

Many honors came to Dr. Norris. He was elected to the Society of the Sigma XI, Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Chi Sigma, the professional chemical

fraternity. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He held honorary membership in the Chemical Society of Rurnania and in the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He was elected vice-president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1936. He was Chairman of the Faculty of M.I.T., 1937-1939. Dr. Norris was very proud of the award of the Medal of the Institute of Chemists, conferred on him in May, 1937. In accepting the award he wrote to Dr. M. L. Crossley of the Institute of Chemists.

"I appreciate very much the high honor and will be much pleased to accept the Medal. I was gratified to learn that the award was made for both teaching and research. So far as I know, the Medal, awarded by your Institute, is the only one in which emphasis is placed on a man's influence, as a teacher, on young men electing to enter the profession of the chemist. I feel that a man can do a great deal in this world in influencing those who are undertaking a professional life."

The troubled situation in Europe in 1939, fomented by Hitler, argued against a walking tour in Germany, or Austria or Switzerland. Instead, Professor and Mrs. Norris toured Hawaii, California and Northwestern United States in June of that year.

The next summer, June 1940, the development of a cataract in his right eye, necessitated surgery which was successful. However, his troubles were not over. On July 1, 1940, phlebitis set in. On July 18th he was back in the Phillips House of the Massachusetts General Hospital for blood transfusions. In spite of all the resources of the hospital, his condition worsened steadily. He died on August 3, 1940, half way through his seventieth year. Funeral services were held at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, on August fifth, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his grave is in the Norris lot. The day was bright and full of sunshine as if to capture some of the "Good Cheer" of the North Bridgton home and of the encouragement Dr. Norris had given his students and colleagues and friends over many years.

The original article was accompanied by eight pages of photographs and a listing of 41 students who received doctoral or master's degrees for work under his guidance.

By Avery A. Ashdown, M.I.T.