Linus Carl Pauling - Part III

June 14, 2010

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He was a young man living a struggling life; he had to work hard to afford his college expenses resigning at all his social life. In spite of this fact Linus impressed his teachers and colleagues by his studies.

In 1919, after the end of the summer, he had again to face difficult economical situations, including the decision of leaving his studies or not. Actually he had no money to cover his junior-year expenses; he had sent all of it to his mother who had been obliged to spend it all. I'm sure he must have been seriously disappointed and troubled when he decided to leave college and take a job in Portland to help support his mother.

But, in the late autumn, his misfortune began to change; fortunately he received a telegram from the Oregon Agricultural College chemistry department, offering him a position as a full-time assistant instructor in quantitative analysis in chemistry, while he was still an undergraduate. Incredibly it was a course he had just finished taking himself. This allowed him to continue his studies at the college.

In his last two years at school, Pauling discovered the papers by Gilbert N. Lewis on the electronic theory of valence and by and Irving Langmuir on the on the electronic structure of atoms and their bonding to form molecules. These papers had an immense influence on Linus Pauling.

Linus began his junior year in the Oregon Agricultural College in the fall of 1920. He received his Bachelor of Science degree on June 5, 1920.

During 1921 Linus Pauling taught at the Oregon Agricultural College from January to March. This year he met Floyd E. Rowland, a thirty-five-year-old Iowan in charge of the chemical engineering department. He encouraged Linus to go to &#&graduate school&#&.

During the winter of his senior year of college, he was approached by the college to teach a class called "Chemistry for Home Economic Majors". Linus began to teach this course to 25 girls and met, for the first time, Ava Helen Miller from Beavercreek, whom he married on June 17, 1923. They had four children: Linus Carl Jr. (b. 1925); Peter Jeffress (1931-2003, a crystallographer and lecturer in chemistry); Edward Crellin (1937-1997, professor of biology at San Francisco State University and the University of California, Riverside), and Linda Helen, (b. 1932).

Linus Pauling graduated from Oregon Agricultural College in Corvallis - now Oregon State University on June 22, 1922, with a B.S. in chemical engineering. By this time he was already drawn to the challenge of how and why particular atoms form bonds with each other to create molecules with unique structures.

Demonstrating his high values and dedication, in spite of all the obstacles he had to overcome his grade average for his four years of college was 94.29. He was class orator and gave a speech at the graduation ceremonies.