Eli M. Pearce, a past president of ACS and a true champion of the Senior Chemists Committee and all things ACS, passed away on May 18.  He was 86.

Eli was POLY Past Chair (1980), long time Councilor, and POLY-Ed chair for the Division and ACS President in 2002.
 
Eli was a resident of Manhattan and beloved husband of the late Judith Handler Pearce.  He is survived by his son, Russell Gane Pearce; his daughter, Debra Pearce-McCall; his stepson, Michael Ruby; his stepdaughter, Elizabeth Ruby Lyden; and 10 grandchildren. 

Born (in Brooklyn) Eli Perlmutter to Russian immigrants (Samuel Perlmutter and Sarah Reitzen), Pearce changed his name as a young man to circumvent anti-Semitism in the working world. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Brooklyn College in 1949 before serving in the Army during the Korean War.

Pearce earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering) in 1958, studying under polymer chemistry pioneer Herman F. Mark and completing his thesis with Charles G. Overberger. Early in his career, Pearce worked for DuPont, J.T.Baker, and Allied Chemical before becoming director of the Dreyfus Laboratory at Research Triangle Institute. In 1974, Pearce accepted an invitation from Mark to join the faculty at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

Pearce was named University Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering in 1990; he served as director of the Polymer Research Institute from 1980 until 1996 and as Dean of Arts and Sciences from 1982 until 1990. He published more than 250 papers on his research, which focused on polymer synthesis, degradation, and flammability. Pearce garnered many awards, including the 2006 H. F. Mark Medal from the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry & Technology. In 2009, he was named an ACS Fellow.

An emeritus member of ACS, Pearce served as the society’s president in 2002 and director-at-large on the ACS Board of Directors from 1999 until 2000 and again from 2001 until 2003. He was also a councilor with the Polymer Chemistry Division from 1982 until 1998 and an ex officio councilor from 2004 until 2015. Pearce was a strong supporter of the ACS Committee on Minority Affairs and the ACS Scholars Program and was instrumental in establishing the Senior Chemists Committee.

Eli was extraordinary in so many ways--a brilliant polymer scientist, a great leader at his university and within ACS, a passionate advocate for chemistry education reform, and a man who worked tirelessly his entire life for everyday chemists and to ensure that women and minorities had equal opportunities for advancement in society and in their professions.
 
 Elected President of the American Chemical Society in 2002, he led efforts to increase the numbers and influence of women and people of color in the field of chemistry, and to revitalize chemistry education. He was a huge supporter of the ACS Committee on Minority Affairs and the ACS Scholars Program and proud of their successes. And he was instrumental in establishing the Senior Chemists Committee because he believed that retired ACS members could be meaningful ambassadors in K-12 education and in the larger public. His legacy is enormous and he will be greatly missed.  

 
Eli himself was a legacy leader at ACS and felt passionately about this program, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. At the National ACS meeting in Boston 2015, on Monday, August 17, the Committee on Minority Affairs will celebrate the success of this remarkable program with an all-day symposium featuring the stories of ACS Scholars and alumni. This program serves gifted minorities who are under-represented in the chemical sciences and engineering.