Bradford R. STANERSON, Ph.D.

STANERSON, FLAGEL, LAUGHREN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/13/2008 at 13:11:45

Copyright, The Washington Post, DC
November 4, 1998

Bradford R. Stanerson Dies at 91 Headed Scientific Society

Bradford R. Stanerson, 91, who headed the largest professional scientific society in the 1960s and championed efforts to improve science education and encourage students to choose careers in science, died after a stroke Oct. 30 at the Bedford Court Life Care Community in Silver Spring. A Silver Spring resident since 1947, he lived at the nursing home for the last five months.

Dr. Stanerson, a former college instructor and research chemist for Texaco Inc., was executive secretary of the American Chemical Society in Washington from 1965 until his retirement in 1970, and he was an elected member of its board of directors from 1971 to 1977. At the time, the society numbered about 100,000 scientists and engineers. Throughout his years as an administrative officer with the society, he was closely involved in its student affiliate program and its education and manpower activities. In 1959, he was elected president of the Scientific Manpower Commission, an organization of the major scientific societies that studied the nation's needs for scientists in education, government and the military.

Dr. Stanerson, who was born in Kanawha, Iowa, graduated from what is now Iowa State University and received a master's degree in chemistry there in 1931. He was an instructor at Dowling College in Oakdale, N.Y., and at Iowa State University before receiving a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Iowa State University. Dr. Stanerson was a chemist for a Texaco research center in Beacon, N.Y., from 1940 until he joined the American Chemical Society staff in 1947. He became the organization's first educational secretary and later was named deputy executive secretary and director of membership affairs. He was a member of the Cosmos Club.

Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Louise Marvel Stanerson of Silver Spring; two children, Bradford Stanerson of Silver Spring and Loretta Flagel of Merrill, Wis.; eight grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. A daughter, Linda Laughren, died in 1982.