Charles Francis Hitchcock (C.F.H.) Allen papers

Charles Francis Hitchcock (C.F.H.) Allen served as the first Secretary to the Editors of the annual volumes of Organic Syntheses, 1929-1937. On the recommendation of James B. Conant of Harvard University, Allen assumed the job of taking care of all correspondence concerning preparations, mimeographing procedures, circulating these to the Editorial Board for examination, checking assignments, arranging the agenda for the semiannual meetings, and maintaining records. Until Allen's appointment this work was rotated among each Editor-in-Chief of each volume. Allen became very interested in the Organic Syntheses project and did the Secretary's work as an "extracurricular" job, starting while an instructor at Tufts College (1924-1929) and continuing at McGill University (1929-1937). Allen received no salary; the royalties from the sales of the annual volumes were only enough to pay for postage, paper, envelopes, and mimeographing. After his term as Secretary ended, Allen was so interested in Organic Syntheses that he requested appointment to the Editorial Board and checked and submitted preparations while working in the Research Division of Eastman Kodak Co. (1937-1947). He was Editor of Annual Volume 20 of Organic Syntheses. After 1947, he served on the Advisory Board of Editors until his death, August 31, 1979, at the age of 84 years.

Charles Francis Hitchcock Allen was born in Milford, New Jersey on August 13, 1895. He attended Boston University, A.B. in 1919 and A.M. in 1920, and he received his PhD. From Harvard University in 1924. He worked under Professor Elmer P. Kohler, who started Allen's interest in unsaturated, conjugated, and heterocyclic systems, in which fields he published 166 research papers. He was coauthor with A. Harold Blatt of the chapter on "Unsaturation and Conjugation" in Organic Chemistry, An Advanced Treatise, edited by Henry Gilman, in 1937. Allen also contributed to two of the volumes on "Six Membered Heterocyclic Nitrogen Compounds."

Allen's career was divided between teaching at universities and industrial research. He assisted at Boston University and was Instructor at Tufts College, and Assistant Professor at McGilI University, from which he received a D.Sc. in 1937. In 1937, Allen joined the Research Division of the Eastman Kodak Company where he worked until 1961 and was recipient of about 110 patents in photographic chemistry. After retiring from Eastman Kodak, Allen became Professor of Chemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology doing teaching and research until about 1977. His help, advice, and background of organic chemistry was of great value to the growing department of chemistry at R.I.T. He was awarded an Honorary D.Sc. from Boston University in 1944.

Allen served in the Chemical Warfare Service in World War I and on the Manhattan Project of the Atomic Energy Commission (1944). Besides his abiding interest in organic chemistry and Organic Syntheses, Allen was an avid bird-watcher and a collector (automobile plates from all states), and played the cornet in military bands. He was a member of the American Legion, the American Chemical Society (50 years), the Chemical Society of London, and Sigma Xi.

Allen was extremely interested in steam railroads and was a member of the National Railway and Historical Society. He published 26 papers on steam railroading, notably on the Shawmut line. His collected papers are in the Cornell University Library. His enthusiasm for photography not only was manifested by his work and publications at Eastman Kodak but also by a series of illustrated papers for New Hampshire Profiles during the 1970s.

C. F. H. Allen had a very busy and happy 84 years. He is survived by his wife, Alberta Currie Allen, two daughters, Phyllis A. Richmond and Ruth DeBoer, one granddaughter, Emily DeBoer, and his sister, Mrs. Howard A. Pierce. All who knew C. F. H. Allen, students and associates in universities or in industry, appreciated his thoughtfulness, his helpful advice, and above all his great enthusiasm for any and all of his many projects.

-Ralph L. Shriner 1/1980 Originally published in Organic Synthesis v.59 pp xi-xii