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Dr. Kelley first came to <strong>DU</strong> in 1946, but left three yearslater to do research at Stanford University and toreevaluate his concepts about student-professor relationships,a primary concern of his. He returned to "theacademic field" in 1962 as chairman of the ChemistryDepartment at <strong>DU</strong>. He says he looked forward to theopportunity of becoming personally involved in thegrowth and development of this University, especiallyduring the period of the Ford Foundation Grant.Just yesterday Brian told me, 'This chemistry is amystery to me because I'm not mathematicallyinclined. I've always had trouble with math. But I'vegot to get a good passing grade; I want to be adoctor.' Do you mean to tell me you'd trust your lifeto a doctor who couldn't learn chemistry? What'swrong here? What's this big claim not only ofignorance but even more of permanent incompetence?It worries me to find anyone who wantsto drive a car but can never know what he's puttinginto the atmosphere, who can only guess thevalidity of advertising claims, who accepts publicoffice without some personal ability to evaluateRulison, nuclear power plants, hard insecticides,fluoridation of water, public health programs, orrecovery of pure water. And this leads me to thesubject of chemistry in terms of the university as awhole.Who is an educated man, ready for a satisfying rolein today's society, without a knowledge of theworld about him? Chemistry as a subject is a means tothat knowledge of the world. It is not the onlyscience which describes the world, but it handlesa large enough fraction of the world to tie in for anyone of us. At the same time, its choice of unambiguouswords, its declaration of understandability,its demand of proof, its search for quantitativerelationship, each of these gives access to largeareas of science not studied in the course. Thekindest compliment I recall was from a theatre majora few years ago who told me, 'You have finallyconvinced me that I can learn a science.' The dataneeded for decision, or just to sati~fy curiosity, arefairly easy to acquire once that confidence isestablished.Protest as you will the absurdities of our dollarbased value system; technology is here to stay. Theuneducated man is as hard put to justify his faithin Rachel Carson as he is in Clifford Hardin.Ralph Nader has much to say, but where does thetruth lie? Your brother is dying of cancer andyou've just heard of Krebiozen. Is it useful or purewaste? Do you tell me 'I just can't learn aboutscience. I'm not mathematically inclined'?Chairman of the Chemistry DepartmentB.S.- Oregon State CollegePh.D.- University of Washington44

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