Obituaries

Henry W. (Hank) Godshalk, 86, founder of an industrial paint business, died June 24 in Santa Fe, N.M. He had developed pneumonia while recovering from a fall during a March ski trip.

After earning a B.S. in chemistry from Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster, Pa., Godshalk went to work for DuPont as a member of the Marshall Point Research Laboratory team, which was charged with converting General Motors to the use of a more durable acrylic lacquer system. In the mid-1950s, he held a number of other technical and general management positions with companies doing work in the pigments and dispersions areas of coatings technology.

In 1970, Godshalk and his wife, Zoe, started Finishes Unlimited, a manufacturer of waterborne, air-dry, and enamel paints used primarily to coat metal, wood, plastic, glass, and concrete. An employee group purchased the Sugar Grove, Ill., firm in 2004, retaining him as chairman.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters. He had been an ACS member since 1942.

Leo Mandelkern, 84, a polymer chemist and Florida State University distinguished professor emeritus, died on May 31, 2006.

Born and raised in New York City, Mandelkern graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1942. After serving in the Army and Army Air Corps during World War II, he returned to Cornell, earning a Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1949.

Mandelkern was a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell with Nobel Laureate Paul J. Flory until 1952. They became friends, collaborating until Flory's death in 1985.

After leaving Cornell, Mandelkern went to work at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards & Technology).

In 1962, he moved to Tallahassee, Fla., to join the chemistry department and the Institute of Molecular Biophysics (IMB) at FSU. He served as associate director of IMB from 1970 to 1974. In 1984, he was named Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor; in 1989, he was named an emeritus professor.

Mandelkern's work focused on areas as diverse as the thermodynamics and kinetics of crystallization, the morphology of the crystalline state, nucleation processes, and the mechanochemistry and transport properties of biopolymers. He published hundreds of papers and authored or coauthored eight books while at FSU. After his retirement, he published approximately 80 peer-reviewed papers, authored one book, and coauthored two others.

He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Macromolecules, the Journal of Polymer Science (now titled the Journal of Polymer Science 1946-1995), Journal of Mechanochemistry & Cell Motility, and, most recently, the macromolecular edition of ChemTracts.

Mandelkern received many awards, including the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry (1975); the ACS Applied Polymer Science Award (1989); the ACS Rubber Division Charles Goodyear Medal (1993); the ACS Polymer Chemistry Division P. J. Flory Education Award (1994); the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering Award for Cooperative Research in Polymer Science & Engineering (1995); and the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry's Herman F. Mark Award (2000).

He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a senior fellow of the American Physical Society.

Mandelkern is survived by his wife, Berdie, three sons, and four grandchildren. An emeritus member, he joined ACS in 1942.

Theodore J. (Ted) Weismann, 77, a geochemist and professor, died at his home in Pittsburgh on June 6. He had a history of cardiovascular ailments.

Between 1952 and 1956, Weismann received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

He spent most of his career with Gulf Research & Development, rising in the ranks to become the first manager of its department of geochemistry. Weismann directed research in areas that included isotopic dating techniques and surface geochemical prospecting. He served as the geochemist on an exploration team seeking oil and gas deposits for the Chinese government in the 1970s.

After retiring from Gulf Research in 1982, Weismann became an adjunct professor of chemistry at Duquesne. He was an active supporter of the Duquesne chapter of student affiliates of ACS and often personally provided the funding for students to attend ACS national meetings and present the results of their research.

Weismann was active in many organizations, including the North Catholic High School Alumni Association, the Society of Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Chemists Club. He was the first director of ACS's Division of Geochemistry. In 1999, he received the Pittsburgh Award from ACS's Pittsburgh Section.

An emeritus member, he joined ACS in 1952.

Louis B. Werner, 86, a nuclear chemist, died of pancreatic cancer on May 20 in Santa Rosa, Calif. He resided in Oakmont, Calif.

Born in Nampa, Idaho, Werner earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from the College of Idaho in 1940. He then enrolled in the Graduate School of Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

Two years later, he accepted an offer to join the Manhattan Project during World War II. He was involved in the effort to isolate plutonium under the direction of Glenn T. Seaborg, winner of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After the war, Werner returned to graduate school at UC Berkeley, studying nuclear chemistry and aiding in work to isolate curium. After he received his Ph.D. in 1948, he did research and development work in nuclear safety and nonnuclear energy programs. Starting in 1958, he served as the Atomic Energy Commission's scientific representative in the U.K. and Ireland for more than two years. He then returned to the U.S., where he worked in corporate management for a nuclear services company and later for the U.S. government in the development of geothermal energy resources for electric power production.

Werner also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho in 1983.

He is survived by a sister, two children, and four grandchildren.