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Marie Maynard Daly was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry. Her father, Ivan C. Daly, attended Cornell University with the intention of becoming a chemist; however, due to financial constraints, he was unable to complete a degree. He found work as a postal clerk and later married Helen Page. One of three children, Marie Daly was born on April 16, 1921 in Corona, Queens, New York. It was probably due to her maternal grandfather's extensive library and the many hours her mother spent reading to her children that Daly became an avid reader. She was especially drawn to books about science and scientists, such as Paul De Kruif's Microbe Hunters. She graduated from Hunter College High School--an all-girls' school that encouraged young women to pursue their professional goals.
In order to be able to live at home, Marie Daly attended Queens College in Flushing, New York, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1942 with a B.S. degree in chemistry. She remained at Queens College for another year, working as a laboratory assistant while attending graduate school at New York University. In 1943, she earned an M.S. degree in chemistry. Under the supervision of Mary Letitia Caldwell, who was well-known for her work on the enzyme amylase, Daly was awarded a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1947 from Columbia University.
Daly spent two years as an instructor at Howard University. Upon receiving a grant from the American Cancer Society to support her postdoctoral research, she joined A. E. Mirsky at the Rockefeller Institute, where she stayed for seven years. Her postdoctoral research involved studying (among other things) the composition and metabolism of components of cell nuclei, determining the base composition of deoxypentose nucleic acids, and calculating the rate of uptake of labeled glycine by components of cell nuclei. She eventually accepted a position at Columbia University to teach biochemistry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It was here that she began collaborating with Quentin B. Deming. In 1960, they moved to Yeshiva University at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and in 1971 Daly became an associate professor.
As a professor, Daly's early research involved the study of the metabolism of the arterial wall and how this process is related to aging, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. Later, she studied the uptake, synthesis, and distribution of creatine in cell cultures and tissues.
In 1961, Marie Maynard Daly married Vincent Clark. She retired from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1986, and in 1988 she established a scholarship for African American chemistry and physics majors at Queens College in memory of her father.
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