Wallace Carothers - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Carothers was born on April 27, 1896 in Burlington, Iowa, to Ira and Mary Evalina Carothers. He was the oldest of four children. He had one brother and two sisters: John, Isobel and Mary. As a youth, Carothers was fascinated by tools and mechanical devices and spent many hours experimenting. He attended public school in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was known as a conscientious student. After graduation, and under pressure from his father, Carothers enrolled in the Capital City Commercial College in Des Moines, where his father was Vice-President, completing the accountancy and secretarial curriculum in July 1915.

In September 1915, he entered Tarkio College in Missouri. Although he initially majored in English, he switched to chemistry under the influence of Arthur Pardee, head of that department. Carothers so excelled in chemistry that before graduation he was made a chemistry instructor and studied for as well as taught the senior course when Pardee left to become chairman of the chemistry department at the University of South Dakota. He graduated from Tarkio in 1920 at the age of 24 with a bachelor of science degree. Then he went to the University of Illinois for his master of arts degree, which he received in 1921 under the guidance of Professor Carl Marvel.

During the 1921–22 school year, Carothers held a one-year appointment as a chemistry instructor at the University of South Dakota. It was at the University of South Dakota that he began his independent research that resulted in an article accepted by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In this paper he measured physical properties of phenylisocyanate and of diazobenzene-imide (now known as phenyl azide). The properties have very similar values, which led him to the conclusion that the structure of the second compound is C₆H₅-N=N=N, with the three nitrogen atoms in a linear chain rather than a ring as previously thought.

He went back to the University of Illinois to study for his Ph.D. under Roger Adams. His degree was awarded in 1924. He specialized in organic chemistry and minored in physical chemistry and mathematics. He worked as a research assistant during 1922–1923 and received the Carr Fellowship for 1923–24. This was the most prestigious award offered by the university at that time.