Smith, Stanton B. oral history interview, 2001

Item

Identifier: MOH 289

Staff Only

Smith, Stanton B. oral history interview

Scope and Contents

Interview includes discussions of: educational and family background; Androscoggin River; Bates Bobcats; Bates College; Manhattan Project; Pittsburgh Coke and Chemical; activated carbon; Walter Lawrance and the environment; solvent recovery; Sri Lanka; Frank Coffin as a child; Brooks Quimby; Manchester, New Hampshire incident; and William Loeb.

Dates

2001

Access Restrictions

Some interviews may be restricted pending approval of the interviewee. See the Archives staff for additional information.

Most interviews are available online (audio and transcripts) and can be accessed by clicking the highlighted link at each interviewee webpage.

Biographical / Historical

Stanton Smith was born March 10, 1920 in Lewiston, Maine. His father, Paul Rexford Smith was a local dentist and Bates College graduate, class of 1915. His mother, Marjorie (Shaw) Smith was a graduate of Simmons College and taught Home Economics for several years. Stanton graduated from Bates, in the class of 1941, with a major in Chemistry. He was an avid trumpeter in the Bates Bobcats. In 1941, while working at Kodak, Smith had an opportunity to work on the Manhattan Project, which he pursued. He went on after the war to get a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1948. He worked in the carbon chemicals field and has extensive dealings with environmental legislation and its direct impact on the chemical industry. He grew up in the same neighborhood as Frank Coffin.