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Dr. Samuel Massie was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas on July 3, 1919. He was remarkable--he graduated from high school at thirteen, spent two years at Dunbar Junior College, and by the time he was eighteen, earned a B.S. degree in chemistry (Summa Cum Laude) from what is now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Samuel Massie was awarded a National Youth Administration Scholarship that allowed him to continue his education at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He earned his M.A. degree in chemistry in 1940.
In 1941 Massie enrolled in the chemistry doctoral program at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. When he was nearing the end of his doctoral studies, his draft deferment was revoked. Prior to this, Dr. Henry Gilman had invited Massie to become part of his research group whose work was connected to the Manhattan Project. Massie was able to remain at Iowa State, however his graduate studies were interrupted until the end of the war. He earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1946.
Massie began his teaching career at Fisk University where he remained until 1947. He moved to Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma as full professor and chairman of the chemistry department. Massie strengthened the department in teaching as well as research and in 1953 he became president of the Oklahoma Academy of Sciences. Later that year he accepted the position of chair of the chemistry department at Fisk University. Here he resumed his studies of phenothiazine and produced a seminal review article on the compound. Phenothiazine had previously been used as a precursor of dyes, medicines and insecticides. After the review article was published, many new applications were discovered, such as in the preparation of drugs for mental diseases and for cancer therapy. Several years later, Massie was able to have the American Chemical Society's national meeting at Fisk. This was the first time that a major scientific meeting was hosted at an historically Black institution.
In 1960 Massie was appointed to serve as associate director of special projects in science education at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. From there he joined Howard University in Washington DC, then North Caroline College at Durham, North Carolina, and finally the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland where he remained until his retirement in 1994. Massie was the first African American science professor and, later, the first African American department chair at the Naval Academy. Here he continued research, now on foaming agents to disperse poisonous gases, anti-infection materials, and numerous environmental studies concerning the fate of chemicals used aboard naval vessels.
Samuel Massie married Gloria Tompkins in 1947. They have three sons and five grandchildren.
Massie has been awarded many honors, including being named Outstanding Professor by the National Organization of Black Professional Chemists and Chemical Engineers (1980), the Distinguished Achievement Citation by the Iowa State University Alumni Association (1981), the Lifetime Achievement Award by the White House Initiative (1988). Because he is a graduate of two historically black colleges and universities, Massie was inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1994, he received the James Flack Norris Award of the Northeast Section of the American Chemical Society for his chemistry teaching.
Since retirement from the Naval Academy, Massie has been vice president for education of the Bingwa Software Company.
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