William Francis Fair, Jr.

Koopers Company

November 11, 1903 – ?

Rheologist

Awarded Bingham Medal 1950
President 1945-1949

William Francis Fair, Jr. was born in South Natick, Massachusetts in 1903. He obtained his AB from Harvard University in 1925 after which he took a position as an analytical chemist at Devoe & Reynolds in New York for a year. From 1926-1929, Fair worked as an assistant instrumental analytical chemist at Columbia University and while there received his MA in 1927. Fair then worked as a research chemist at the Barrett Company from 1929-1932 while receiving his PhD in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1930. He then worked for the Bridges Asphalt Company, College of Sacred Heart, and ended at the Koppers Co., where he retired from in 1963. Fair was well known for his work in the bituminous products field.

Fair was awarded the Bingham Medal for “notable contributions to colloid chemistry, to the technology of bituminous materials, and to the science of rheology; for distinguished services to the American Society for Testing Materials in establishing standards; for his counsel in his position as a member of the governing board of the American Institute for Physics; and for his guidance of the affairs of The Society of Rheology in various positions and finally that of President of the years 1945-1949” (Rheology Bulletin, 1950).

Sources

Biographical File at Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.

Rheology Bulletin Fall 1950, 19/(2). Also, Box 5, Folder 11. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.