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JUST A FEW WEEKS short of his seventy-seventh birthday, on 20 February 2007, Al Cotton died, and with him the chemical community lost one of its most distinguished scholars. He was a friend, collaborator, and mentor to 118 Ph.D. graduates and more than 150 postdoctoral associates. Al and his wife, Diane (Dee), were frequently in attendance at the American Philosophical Society's Spring General Meeting.
Cotton's impact on the development of inorganic chemistry in the twentieth century was unmatched. Through his published science, his excellent books, his students, and his scientific politics, Al Cotton influenced his discipline, and science development in the U.S. and worldwide. While he will long be remembered for his discoveries relating to metal-metal bonding and the first formulation of quadruple bonds between atoms, his impact was far broader than this spectacular discovery, for which he received three of the most lucrative chemistry awards: the Robert A. Welch Award, the King Faisal Prize, and the Wolf Prize. While he coveted the Nobel Prize and was nominated for it each year from the 1980s until his death, he failed to receive it. He did receive the American Chemical Society's highest award, the Priestley Medal.
Many would say Cotton's impact on chemistry was as strong as that of Linus Pauling. Indeed, Pauling was a positive role model for him scientifically, but not politically. It was clear that he knew Pauling's book The Nature of the Chemical Bond from cover to cover. Along with Tobin Marks of Northwestern University and Joe Norman of the University of Washington, I was fortunate to be with Al when he received the Pauling Award in 1976, and to have that great icon of American science listen to our talks. It was also appropriate later for Cotton to become the first recipient of the Texas A&M Section American Chemical Society's F. A. Cotton Award and medal, just as Linus Pauling was the first recipient of the Linus Pauling Award.
While growing up in Philadelphia, Al Cotton lost his father at a young age. His mother took it upon herself to insure that this bright, capable child got the education he would need to be successful in life. She helped him through this period, which even included study of the piano...