Remembering St. Elmo Brady
The School of Chemical Sciences at Illinois hosted a celebration of diversity in the fields of chemical sciences and chemical engineering with two public events honoring an LAS alumnus who was the first African-American to receive a PhD in chemistry in the United States.
In early February, the American Chemical Society designated a national historic chemical landmark for St. Elmo Brady (MA, 1914; PhD, 1916; chemistry) who earned his PhD in 1916 at the University of Illinois. Several of Brady's relatives were on hand for the ceremony, including his granddaughter, Carol Brady Fonvielle, and great-grandson, William Clay Fonvielle, according to news reports.
This designation occurred at Noyes Laboratory and featured speakers and a reception at the Chemistry Library.
"My grandfather first and foremost was an educator," Carol Brady Fonvielle said, according to The News-Gazette. "This allows his efforts to go forward, and I'm so glad."
St. Elmo Brady was born Dec. 22, 1884, in Louisville, Kentucky. Greatly influenced by Thomas W. Talley, a pioneer in the teaching of science, he received a bachelor's degree from Fisk University in 1908 at age 24 and immediately began teaching at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. It was there that he became friends with famous educator Booker T. Washington and famed scientist George Washington Carver. “It was the friendship of these two men that showed me the real value of giving one’s self and effort to help the other fellow,” Brady said.
In 1912, he was offered a scholarship by the U of I to pursue graduate studies, earning a master’s degree in chemistry in 1914. Brady continued his studies under professor Clarence G. Derick, earning a PhD in 1916. His dissertation was titled “The divalent oxygen atom.”
Many years later, he told his students that when he went to graduate school, “they began with 20 whites and one other and ended, in 1916, with six whites and one other.” Brady lauded his educational experiences at the U of I as having “all the advantages of a great university, contact with great minds, and the use of all modern equipment.”
During his time at Illinois, Brady became the first African-American admitted to Phi Lambda Upsilon, the chemistry honor society, in 1914, and was one of the first inducted into Sigma Xi, the science honorary society, in 1915.
Brady published three scholarly abstracts in Science in 1914-15 on his work with Derick. He also collaborated with professor George Beal on a paper published in the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry titled “The hydrochloride method for the determination of alkaloids.”
Jonathan Sweedler, the director of the School of Chemical Sciences, said Brady’s most enduring legacy involves his efforts to enhance and create undergraduate curricula, graduate programs and fundraising efforts at four historically black colleges and universities: Fisk University, Tuskegee University, Howard University, and Tougaloo College.
In conjunction with faculty members from the University of Illinois, he established a summer program at Fisk University in infrared spectroscopy that was open to faculty members from all colleges and universities. He served again as a faculty member at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, from 1916-20; he was the chair of the chemistry department at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from 1920-27; the chair of the chemistry department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1927-52; and, following his retirement from Fisk University, served as the chair of the chemistry department at Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi, from 1952-66.
He died in 1966 in Washington, D.C., at age 82.
