Mary Sherrill was a member of the collaborative research group formed among the chemistry faculty at Mt. Holyoke College by Emma Perry Carr. The group’s goal was to obtain spectroscopic data on a variety of organic compounds. Sherrill’s expertise was the synthesis and purification of these compounds.

Mary Lura Sherrill was born on July 14, 1888 in Salisbury, North Carolina to Sarah Rosanna Bost and Miles Osborne Sherrill. Not much is known about her early life and schooling. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1909 where she had earned an A.B. degree with an emphasis in chemistry. She was an instructor of chemistry there until 1914, during which time she also had earned an A.M. degree in physics (in 1911). Sherrill attributed her choice of chemistry as a career to her chemistry instructor, Fernando Wood Martin.

Sherrill decided to enroll in the Ph.D. program in chemistry at the University of Chicago in 1914, where she worked under Julius Stieglitz. She maintained her connection with Randolph-Macon, either as an instructor or as an adjunct professor until 1918. Her doctoral research focused on the synthesis of barbiturates and esters of methylenedisalicylic acid. In 1918 Sherrill accepted a position as associate professor of chemistry at the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial Institute. She remained there two years while she continued her doctoral research.

From 1920–1921, Sherrill worked with Julius Stieglitz as a civilian research associate for the Chemical Warfare Service. Here she worked on developing a “sneezing gas” for which she held the patent for its commercial production. In 1921 she was offered a position as an assistant professor of chemistry at Mt. Holyoke College. It should be noted that Emma Perry Carr who hired Sherrill was a former student of Stieglitz at the University of Chicago. Sherrill completed her doctoral research while at Mt. Holyoke. She was awarded her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1923.

The rest of Mary Lura Sherrill’s professional life was spent at Mt. Holyoke College. She was promoted to associate professor in 1924, professor in 1931 and became chair of the chemistry department in 1946. As part of the Mt. Holyoke research group that included faculty and master’s and undergraduate students, Sherrill made significant contributions, especially in the synthesis of antimalarial drugs. She was awarded the Garvan Medal in 1957 for her work on antimalarial compounds.

Mary Lura Sherrill died on October 27, 1968 in High Point, North Carolina.

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