By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

Paul Doughty Bartlett, Erving Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, died of natural causes in Lexington, on Oct. 11. He was 90.

After spending 40 years as a researcher at Harvard, Bartlett retired and completed a second 11-year career at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

He won national acclaim for basic research in several areas of organic chemistry. He was fond of saying, "All life depends on organic reactions."

"Paul's principal scientific contribution was to deepen fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that underlie all chemical and biological transformations," said Michael McBride, a former student and a professor of chemistry at Yale University. "He played a central role in moving organic chemistry from a subject requiring brutal memorization to a discipline organized by fundamental principles."

Bartlett's work led to many practical applications. He held 17 patents in areas such as insect repellents, petroleum refining, detoxification of chemical weapons, and reaction of natural and synthetic materials with oxygen.

Bartlett also was widely admired as a teacher. "There may never have been a time when I didn't anticipate being a teacher," he said in 1985.

"Paul was as renowned for his kindness, subtle wit, broad grin, and hearty laugh as he was for his scientific insight and insistence on high standards," McBride recalls.

Bartlett was frequently honored for his achievements in both research and teaching, including winning the National Medal of Science, presented to him by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968. He also received the Linus Pauling Medal (1975), the Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry (1971), the Fulbright Award (1957), and two Guggenheim Fellowships (1957, 1971). He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received numerous other scientific honor societies worldwide.

Born on Aug. 14, 1907, in Ann Arbor, Mich., Bartlett went to public schools in Indianapolis, where he became fascinated with chemistry. He earned a B.A. from Amherst College in 1928 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1931.

Bartlett returned to Harvard in 1934 as a faculty instructor, rising quickly to become one of the University's youngest professors in 1946. He was named Erving Professor of Chemistry two years later.

Students and postdoctoral fellows who worked with him formed the "Bartlett Group" to discuss problems and solutions in organic chemistry. In 1975, the group, which then numbered more than 150, presented him with a compilation of letters and essays they had written called "P.D. and the Bartlett Group at Harvard, 1934-1974."

Reporting on the event, the Journal of the American Chemistry Society wrote: "Bartlett has not only been an outstanding scientist in his own right, but he has had the unique ability to transmit his outlook and dedication to those who worked with him. Since these include an impressive number of the present leaders in the area of physical organic chemistry, it is easy to see why his influences has been so enormous."

After retiring from Harvard in 1974, Bartlett moved to Texas Christian University and took up a second career as Robert A. Welsh Research Professor. By the time he had retired again, in 1985, the Bartlett Group numbered more than 270.

He is survived by his three children, Joanna Bartlett Kennedy of Lexington, Mass., Geoffrey Bartlett of Ridgefield, Conn., and Sarah Bartlett Hester of Jericho, Vt.; and seven grandchildren.