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Picture: Garrett W. Thiessen

GARRETT W. THIESSEN, A.B., B.S., Ph.D.

       Son of William and Susan (Steiner) Thiessen, Garrett William Thiessen was born in Stanwood, January 9, 1902. As he grew up, his teachers and friends recognized in him a boy of superior intellect. Having finished grade and high school here, he went to Cornell College where he was graduated A.B. in 1924. At the University of Iowa he received his M.S. degree in 1925 and his Ph.D. in 1927. From 1927 to 1930 he served as assistant professor of mathematics and chemistry at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

       He was married in 1940, to Isabel Davidson, daughter of A. B. Davidson of Stanwood.

       Doctor Thiessen joined the faculty of Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois in 1930. From the position of instructor of chemistry, he moved on to full professorship and then to head of the department of chemistry, a position he held from 1952 to 1965. At his own request he was relieved of the responsibility of department head so that he could give all of his attention to teaching.

       While he was still a student at Cornell, young Thiessen received the Phi Beta Key. He was a member of the American Chemical Society and the Electro-Chemical Society of which he was chairman in the electro-organic division. He held in succession the offices of president of the Illinois State Academy of sciences and chairman of the Illinois-Iowa section of the American Chemical Society. Granted leave from Monmouth College for the school year 1960-’61, Doctor Thiessen served as the first chemistry professor named to the faculty at Argonne National Laboratory in a program sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

       In 1957, Garrett (as all Stanwood people naturally call him) received an award of $1,000 from the National Manufacturing Chemist’s Association, having been rated by that organization as one of the six most outstanding teachers in the field of undergraduate chemistry in the United States. He published many articles in scientific journals and was co-author of a book, “How to Solve Problems in Physical Chemistry.”

       From his high school days through life skill in the Latin language was one of Garrett’s hobbies. He translated poems and other works from the Latin to English and corresponded in Latin with another scholar of like accomplishment. He was an earnest student of the Bible and during nearly all of his adult life taught a Sunday school class, most frequently on the adult level. Also he served his church (United Presbyterian) for many years as a ruling elder.

       Death came very suddenly to Doctor Garrett Thiessen on July 17, 1967. According to his often-expressed wish, his body was given for medical research.

       A true scholar, a scientist of distinction, a skilled and understanding teacher, a most winsome personality, Garrett Thiessen’s influence continues through the lives of the hundreds of students and others who admired him.