About Us
The Oklahoma Section of the ACS was chartered on May 14, 1919 at Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University). The original section encompassed the entire new state of Oklahoma. The first meeting of the section was held on December 4, 1919 in Stillwater.
Many of the chemists at that time worked in the growing oil industry, and a Petroleum Group was formed as a sub-section from 1931-1940. Above is a photograph of the original charter document of the Oklahoma Section. To the left are the dates of charter and headquarters of the original five ACS Sections in Oklahoma.
The four sections in the state were chartered between 1930 and 1959. The first chair of the section was Edwin C. DeBarr, an early faculty member at the University of Oklahoma. DeBarr’s name on the OU Chemistry Building and a Norman street have since been removed owing to DeBarr’s other, less scientific pursuits. Section chairs before 1950 were from industry (14), the US Bureau of Mines (2), the University of Oklahoma (8), Oklahoma State University (3), and the University of Tulsa (2). A wider distribution of chairs followed, with chairs from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, high school teachers, and many of the state’s regional universities leading the section. As the state added more ACS sections, statewide meetings commenced. The first Trisectional meeting was held in 1947 in Oklahoma City, with an evening address on “Frontiers of Petroleum Chemistry”. Tetrasecctional and Pentasectional meetings followed, and the Pentasectionals continue to the present. In 1926, the Oklahoma Section hosted the 71st national ACS meeting in. Tulsa. The Oklahoma Section also hosted the Southwest Regional ACS meeting in 1949, 1960, and again in 2003.
