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   Dr. Richard W. Dodson, founding Chairman of the BNL Chemistry Department died on June 13 in Sonoma, CA at the age of 87.  Born in Kirksville, MO, Dodson received his B.S. in 1936 from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry in 1939 from Johns Hopkins University.

 After a stint as a National Research Council Fellow at Cal Tech, Dodson joined the National Defense Research Committee in 1940 to do chemical warfare research at Cal Tech and Northwestern University.  In 1943 he was appointed Group Leader and later Assistant Division Leader of the Chemistry Division at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.  After the war he returned to Cal Tech as Assistant Professor, and in 1947 he joined the Columbia University faculty (Associate
 Professor 1947-53, Professor 1953-82).

Immediately after his arrival at Columbia, Dodson was asked to join the recently founded Brookhaven National Laboratory to build up and lead the Chemistry Department. He served as Acting Chairman for 18 months, fully intending to return to full-time teaching and research at Columbia, but in the fall of 1948 acceded to the pleas of his chemistry colleagues and Leland Haworth, the Laboratory Director, to become Chairman, a post he held until 1968. From 1951 to 1956 he also served as Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission’s General Advisory Committee.

Dick Dodson’s vision and his unerring sense for excellence in scientific research shaped the Chemistry Department and made it an outstanding research institution. Beyond that he created the very special, collegial atmosphere that all those who joined the Department in the early years remember fondly. Dodson was also an excellent scientist in his own right. His principal research interests were electron exchange reactions and hot-atom chemistry.

In the words of Gerhart Friedlander, Dodson’s successor as Chemistry Chair, “Dick was a wonderful human being, a great friend, my mentor and a true scholar. He was passionately devoted to BNL and worked tirelessly to help make it the outstanding institution that it is.”

Dodson is survived by his wife Mary Ellen, two sons Robert and Don, and five grandchildren.