1896-1937

American Chemist

Wallace Carothers quite literally transformed the texture of human life. His assignment as director of a research team for the DuPont Company marked the culmination of a promising career, and the promise bore fruit: Carothers's experiments with polymer plastics yielded nylon, one of the most significant inventions of the twentieth century, and the first synthetic fiber. He would probably have won a Nobel Prize, as some have speculated, yet just before he turned 40, Carothers—who in addition to his career successes was a newlywed with a first child on the way—took his own life.

Carothers was born on April 27, 1896, in Burlington, Iowa, the oldest of Ira and Mary McMullin Carothers's four children. His sister, Isobel, was destined to go on to celebrity as a member of the radio musical trio "Clara, Lu, and Em." Carothers's father was a teacher at...