Born on 29 May 1914 in Mexia, Texas, Henry Cecil McBay was a prominent chemist and teacher who helped more than 50 students at historically black colleges and universities earn doctoral degrees. The son of working-class parents, McBay worked to earn the money and scholarships needed to attend college. After earning his BS in 1934 from Wiley College and MS in 1936 from Atlanta University, he returned to Wiley to teach and help his younger siblings pay for college. In 1940 he received funding at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute to research the possible use of okra fiber in rope and fabrics to replace jute, whose importation from India was interrupted by World War II. In 1942, when his Tuskegee fellowship ended, McBay was offered a teaching assistantship at the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD in organic chemistry in 1945. For his graduate work, he synthesized compounds from hydrogen peroxide, a line of research that required specialized laboratory techniques for handling the explosive materials created. For his efforts, McBay was awarded the Elizabeth Norton Prize for excellence in chemical research in both 1944 and 1945. He then returned to Atlanta, where he joined the teaching faculty of Morehouse College. He remained at the historically black college for the next three and a half decades, advancing to full professor and serving as chair of the chemistry department. McBay turned his focus from research to mentoring and helped dozens of chemistry majors working toward their doctoral and medical degrees. Because of those efforts, McBay was invited by UNESCO to develop a chemistry education program in Liberia in 1951. In 1982 he returned to his alma mater, Atlanta University, as the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry. He retired from full-time teaching in 1986 but continued to teach part-time until his death in 1995. His outstanding contributions to the education and mentoring of young scientists and engineers inspired the establishment of an eponymous award in his honor by the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, an organization he helped found. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Ronald E. Mickens Collection)
