Good Chemistry

November 30th, 2000

Science and education were always been important to Marjorie Kade '36 and Charles “Jim” Kade ’36, who died in 2000. They both were college science majors and their work as chemists brought them together in 1946.

“Education is so very important to us,” says Marjorie, who graduated from the University of Illinois. All six of the couple’s children have at least an undergraduate college degree.

“I feel strongly private education should be supported and if the alumni don’t do it, who’s going to?” Jim once said. "One of the main obligations of private education is to lead the educational institutions of the country. Public education supported by tax dollars is all well and good, but anything new and important is very difficult to support through tax dollars.”

The Kades have created a lasting gift at Carleton that reflects the value they place on supporting private education and the sciences. They endowed the Kade Professorship in the Sciences to support professors “whose teaching stimulates in students a lively enthusiasm for the subject.” Since chemistry is the Kades’ discipline, preference is given to faculty members in that department.

Making a connection through science

After graduating from Carleton, Jim went on to earn his master’s degree in organic chemistry at North Dakota State University and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois. By then it was 1941 and the quest for biochemists at the time was to discover which amino acids are essential to sustaining life in humans, Jim recalled. He took a job as Director of Biochemical Research at Frederick Stearns & Co. in Detroit where his team developed an intravenous solution of amino acids that could sustain people who could not eat.

“I was always looking for people to hire as assistants. I turned to my professors from the University of Illinois,” Jim said. “One of the people they recommended was Marjorie. She came to work for me for one year, and I worked for her for the last 53!” said Jim in 1999.

Jim and Marjorie were married in 1946. A year later, they moved to Albany, New York, where Jim became a research chemist with the pharmaceutical company of Sterling-Winthrop. As the young people began their family with the birth of their oldest daughter, Kristina, in 1949, Jim accepted the position as director of the medical science division of McNeil Laboratories near Philadelphia.

A 30 year career

At McNeil, which later became Johnson & Johnson, Jim assembled a team of consultants he says were the top in the field. “We had a staff of consultants probably more famous than any other company,” he said. It was under his direction that the group developed the drug Tylenol. “I was responsible for it, but didn’t actually do any of the work,” Jim says modestly. “My most significant accomplishment was the staffing. I hired them all.”

Jim’s distinguished career as a biochemist with Johnson & Johnson, from which he retired in 1979 as International Vice President after beginning with McNeil Laboratories 30 years before, was recognized by Carleton with an Alumni Achievement Award in 1991.

Legacies

During that time, Jim and Marjorie also raised six children, sent them all to college, and had seen much of the world as part of Jim’s job with Johnson & Johnson. Kristina graduated from Carleton in 1971. A son, James, also attended Carleton. Among the Kade children are several business people, a medical doctor, and a college librarian. As Jim said, “all the children are really good citizens.” The Kades also had 17 grandchildren.

Over the years the couple have supported Carleton in a variety of ways. Jim was a founding director of the Alumni Annual Fund and a long time supporter of the Fund. He was later recognized as a director emeritus.To honor the Kades and their commitment to Carleton, the Board of Trustees conferred upon them the William Carleton Medal.

The Kade family hopes that their love of science and their belief in higher education will live on through the Kade Professorship in the Sciences and encourage others to support Carleton.

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