In Memoriam Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998): Some Personal Reminiscences

Abstract

Some persons, by virtue of the classic status of their achievements and the lengthy duration of their careers, become ‘legends in their own time’ and are often incorrectly believed to be no longer with us. As a case in point, in the early 1980s Charles Scribner’s Sons invited me to write an article on the American organic chemist Carl Shipp (‘Speed’) Marvel for its Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Because one of the criteria for inclusion in DSB was that the subject be deceased, I informed the publisher that Marvel was very much alive (After Marvel had died at the age of 93 in 1988, I wrote the previously requested DSB article).