DUNCAN A. MacINNES 1885-1965

Dr. Duncan A. MacInnes, a member since 1940, died Sept. 23, 1965 at the age of 80. A member Emeritus of the Rockefeller University he had continued active in scientific research until a few weeks of his death. In summary his work aimed at applying the basic principles of physical chemistry to living tissues, in which ionized salts in solution, protein molecules, and other charge-bearing particles play a fundamental role. He was one of the leaders in applying fundamental physical techniques to the study of biology. Many honors were conferred upon Dr. Maclnnes, He received the Nichols Medal in 1942, awarded by the American Chemical Society to stimulate original research. In 1948 he received the Acheson Medal, awarded every two years by the Electrochemical Society, also the Presidential Certificate of Merit. Among his memberships were the American Philosophical Society, National Academy of Sciences, American Chemical Society and the Electrochemical Society of which he was President from 1935 to 1937.

It is this friend’s recollection that Duncan took up the out-of-door life as a release from the problems that absorbed his mind, at times to the exclusion of sleep. When it was mentioned to him that rock climbing required a concentration that swept the mind clear he decided to try it. Unfortunately his first climb was one of the then classic routes, the Underhill Overhang. After the climb he remarked that his fright had been such that had he possessed a knife he would have cut the rope and ended his misery. Though this was said in apparent seriousness that wasn’t his type, he went on to become a competent climber. The out-of-doors seemed to be his chief avenue of escape from his intensive search into the unknown. Duncan never married. There was a host of friends who had only the vaguest notion of his work but with whom conversation was lively when the topic interested him. His personal code was uncompromising but tolerant of others not so rigid. Agendas and details bored him but under pressure he agreed to serve a term as Chairman of the Appalachian Mountain Club in New York. Outstanding as he was in the scientific world, most of us will think of him as walking all day alone through the woods, at harmony with the simple elements of life.

Lawrence G. Coveney