Carl Shipp ("Speed") Marvel was born on September 11, 1894, on a farm in Waynesville, Illinois, the son of John Thomas Marvel and Mary Lucy Wasson Marvel. Although he was expected to be a farmer, his mother insisted that all her children attend college. Marvel's uncle, a former high school teacher, urged him to study science because the next generation of farmers was going to need scientific knowledge. In 1911, Marvel entered Illinois Wesleyan University, in Bloomfield, Illinois. During his junior year he discovered his forte-- synthesizing organic compounds. He developed a "library of smells" and used his nose as an "infrared spectroscope" for recording the odor of every organic compound available to him.

After receiving his B.A. and M.S. degrees in 1915, Marvel immediately entered the University of Illinois at Urbana on a scholarship to study chemistry, still expecting to return to the family farm. Because of a deficiency...