Obituaries

Donald M. Fenton, 76, an industrial chemist, died on Dec. 4, 2005.

A native of Los Angeles, he received a B.S. in chemistry from the city's University of California campus in 1953. Fenton returned to UCLA after two years in Japan with the Army Chemical Corps during the Korean War and obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1958.

He was a chemist at Rohm and Haas in Philadelphia (1958-61); a senior research chemist at Union Oil in Brea, Calif. (1962-67); and a research associate (1967-72), senior research associate (1972-82), manager of planning and development (1982-85), and manager of new technology development at Unocal, in Brea, until he retired in 1992. Fenton held more than 100 patents and was coinventor of the Unisulf process, designed to remove hydrogen sulfide from a gaseous stream such as natural gas.

Fenton cofounded the Petroleum Environmental Research Forum in 1986 and served as its first chairman. In 1991-92, he was the chairman of the board of directors of the California Engineering Foundation. He chaired the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Section of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund in the mid-1980s. He was president of the Union Oil Research Center's chapter of Toastmasters and a leader of the Research Center's Explorer Scout Group for several years.

He also enjoyed the outdoors, including backpacking, traveling, and working in his garden.

Fenton is survived by his wife of 52 years, Margaret; two sons; and five grandchildren. He joined ACS in 1953.

Samuel E. Horne Jr., 82, the research chemist credited with leading a team of scientists in the invention of polyisoprene and polybutadiene rubbers in the mid-1950s, died on Feb. 4.

A native of Jacksonville, Fla., Horne enrolled at Emory University in 1942. His education was interrupted by service in the Navy, but he returned to complete three degrees: an A.B. in 1946, M.A. in 1948, and Ph.D. in 1950.

Horne then worked at B.F. Goodrich until 1982, when Goodrich sold its synthetic rubber operations to Polysar, a Canadian company. Horne worked there until he retired in 1987.

He was called back to work from vacation in 1954 to look at catalysts that Goodrich had licensed from Karl Ziegler. Ziegler had specified that isoprene dienes could not be polymerized by his catalysts. But Horne didn't see why the catalysts couldn't work with dienes, so he tried copolymerizing ethylene and isoprene. The result was not a copolymer, but rather a mixture of linear polyethylene and a high-cis-1,4-content polyisoprene-nearly identical to natural rubber.

He was granted 25 patents, and in 1980, Horne was awarded the Charles Goodyear Medal, the rubber industry's most prestigious honor. He received the Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists in 1974 and the Midgley Medal in 1978.

Horne is survived by four daughters, one son, and seven grandchildren. His wife, Sue, died in 2001. An emeritus member, he joined ACS in 1949.

Miyoshi (Mike) Ikawa, 87, codiscoverer of warfarin and professor emeritus of biochemistry at the University of New Hampshire, died of heart failure on March 7.

The only son of Japanese immigrant parents, Ikawa was born in California. In 1941, he earned a B.S. from California Institute of Technology. During his first year of graduate school, the U.S. declared war on Japan after its attack on Pearl Harbor. Linus Pauling, Ikawa's graduate adviser at Caltech, arranged for him to work with Karl Paul Link at the University of Wisconsin before Japanese people living on the West Coast were sent to relocation camps.

Ikawa completed an M.S. in 1945 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1948 at Wisconsin. During that time, Ikawa, Link, and Mark A. Stahmann synthesized warfarin, so named for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. In 1948, the patent issued for warfarin listed its use as a rat poison. Two years later, warfarin (Coumadin) was introduced as an anticoagulant in clinical treatment for thrombosis and other blood-clotting disorders.

Fluent in Japanese, Ikawa served in occupied Japan for the Army Military Intelligence Service. Ikawa returned to Caltech as a postdoc and continued postdoctoral research at the University of Texas and the University of California, Berkeley.

When Ikawa joined the University of New Hampshire faculty in the early 1960s, his research shifted to the chemical nature of marine biotoxins. Responding to the first red tide in the southern Gulf of Maine in 1972, he and his colleagues initiated the Paralytic Shellfish Monitoring Program for the state. For the next 40 years, Ikawa served on numerous technical panels and peer review committees for federal research grants and scientific journals.

His first wife, Norma, died in 1969. Ikawa is survived by his wife of 26 years, Sayoko; two children; and one grandson. An emeritus member, he joined ACS in 1947.

Charles L. Levesque, 93, an industrial chemist, died on March 28.

Born in Manchester, N.H., he completed bachelor's and master's degrees at Dartmouth College. He earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois.

Levesque enjoyed a distinguished career at Rohm and Haas, where he held several chemical process patents and contributed to rocket propulsion fuel research at Redstone Arsenal. He retired in 1971 as assistant director of research and then served for 10 years as a visiting professor of chemistry and director of continuing education at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa.

In his community, he was a performing member of the Village Players of Hatboro and a "Grandpa Reader" at Shady Grove Elementary School in Pennsylvania.

In keeping with his dedication to science, Levesque donated his body to the Humanity Gifts Registry. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Florence; three children; nine grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

An emeritus member, Levesque joined ACS in 1937 and volunteered for the Philadelphia Section.

Marius J. Panzarella, a consultant, died on March 11. He was 50.

Born in New York City, he graduated as salutatorian of his high school class in Brooklyn in 1973. He earned bachelor's degrees in chemistry and music from Cornell University in 1977. While attending St. John's University in Queens, Panzarella taught organic chemistry and conducted research with peptides.

He was recently a chemistry consultant for Hamilton Media Medical Communications in New Jersey.

Panzarella also trained as a concert pianist. Family and friends remember his compassion, superlative Sicilian cooking, and his ability to converse on almost any topic.

Preceded in death by a son, Panzarella is survived by his wife, Linda; three stepchildren; and a sister. He joined ACS in 1989.

Obituaries are written by Rachel Petkewich. Obituary notices may be sent to r_petkewich@acs.org and should include detailed educational and professional history.