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Paul J. Scheuer
| Paul J. Scheuer | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1915 |
| Died | 2003 |
| Nativity | Germany |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 31431249 |
| Rank | Private |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 26 (3 January – 3 March 1945) |
| Section | 4D |
| Enlisted | Boston, Massachusetts |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Paul J. Scheuer (1915–2003) was a Ritchie Boy (from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 26.
Biography
Paul Josef Scheuer (born 25 May 1915 in Heilbronn; died 12 January 2003 in Hawaii) was a German/American chemist. Born in 1915 in Heilbronn, Scheuer completed his school education in 1934 at the Realgymnasium Heilbronn. Paul was born in 1915 in the city of Heilbronn, Germany, and emigrated to the United States in 1938 and graduated from Northeastern University, Boston, with a B.S.
In autumn 1939 he enrolled as an evening student at Northeastern University in Boston. in Chemistry in 1943, His graduate studies at Harvard, interrupted by service in the U.S. In April 1943, he graduated from Northeastern with a B.S.
In July 1950 he was appointed assistant professor at the University of Hawaii, and decided to set off for a "nebulous future" on the island with his fiancée Alice Dash. Scheuer received his PhD in chemistry in 1950 under the GI Bill, and joined the University of Hawai'i faculty that year. He remained at the University of Hawaii until his retirement in 1985.
A year later he moved to Boston and studied full-time at the College of Liberal Arts, where he received a B.S. He then moved to Harvard University and chose Robert B. Scheuer received his Ph.D.
At the University of Hawaii, Scheuer came into contact with researchers from botany, marine biology, and agricultural science. For example, he did research on the kava plant with Rudolf Hänsel from the Free University of Berlin, but soon turned his attention to the chemical ecology of marine ecosystems. Ritchie Boy Paul Scheuer studied chemistry at Northeastern University in Boston.
He applied to Harvard graduate school and was accepted.
He was later drafted into the US Army where he was assigned to the Chemical Warfare Service.
In January 1945, Scheuer was transferred to Camp Ritchie for military intelligence training. By January of 1945, Paul had left the Chemical Warfare Service and was assigned for training in military intelligence to Camp Ritchie,|Maryland.
Arranged by his supervisor, he switched to a tannery in Pécs in southern Hungary, which specialised in fine leather, in December 1935 and later worked in Simontornya. In 1937, he visited Germany for the funeral of his mother one time before last. Until autumn 1938 he spent time in tanneries in Yugoslavia and England.
As the threat of war in Europe increased, he emigrated to the United States in 1938, working first as a packer of leather and later as a foreman in a tannery in Ayer, Massachusetts. In December of 1941, the United States entered the war and everybody’s life changed. Paul's research during the fall semester of 1943 consisted of many unsuccessful attempts to add ketene to alpha-vinylpyridine, probably in connection with the synthesis of quinine.
In the spring of 1944 the Department needed an instructor for a short introductory chemistry course. In January 1945, he was transferred to Fort Ritchie, Maryland, and trained in military intelligence. In early May 1945, a few days before VE Day, he was were flown to Paris and from there traveled to Third Army Headquarters in Bavaria.
He resumed his studies in September 1946, financed by the G. After returning home I resumed his education in September, 1946, now to be financed under the G.I. in organic chemistry in 1950.
For 20 years, his institute conducted research on ciguatoxins, the structure of which his former post-doctoral researcher Takeshi Yasumoto was able to unlock in 1989. As a Jew, he was unable to take up studies in Germany because of the racial laws[3]. He began training in a leather tannery.
He was "fascinated with chemistry as an intellectual challenge" and decided to become a chemist. Woodward as his supervisor. He worked on addition reactions to bind ketene to alpha-vinylpyridine.
For two years and four months he was contracted for the Chemical Warfare Service, which is responsible for chemical weapons in the U.S. A few days before the end of the war, he flew to Paris and travelled on to Bavaria. With the exception of the Nuremberg Trials, he describes his fourteen months as a special agent in Germany as "uneventful".
Among his instructors were Gilbert Stork and Morris Kupchan. They married at Harvard on September 5 and travelled from San Francisco to Hawaii on the passenger ship SS Lurline. Paul Scheuer had four children.
He recognised that Hawaii, with its largely unexplored endemic flora, offered good opportunities for research into biodiversity and natural products. Later, Scheuer participated in the "war on cancer" proclaimed by U.S. President Richard Nixon and developed drugs based on substances he had extracted from Elysia rufescens, a sea slug.
He contributed to nearly 300 scientific articles and reviews. The field of molecular and chemical biotechnology, which he co-founded, has developed into an important branch of organic chemistry. He served in Europe at the 3rd Army headquarters in Bavaria, and became a special agent assigned to the Nuremberg trials.
He was the author of 13 books on the subject of Marine Natural Products, chemical compounds produced by marine organisms, and was also the recipient of numerous awards. Another distinguished Ritchie Boy who didn't make Dan Gross' list of Ritchie Boy Notable. Scheuer was a Ritchie Boy.
As a German national, Paul was an enemy alien and had a few travel restrictions. Like everybody else, he registered for the draft, but was rejected, when was first called. He even received a tuition scholarship.
Although he was assigned to the Chemical Warfare Service, the two years and four months in the U.S, Army were yet another hiatus in his chemistry education. Paul's spectacular chemical experience was the firing of WP (white phosphorus) shells from 4.2” chemical mortars in the Alabama hills. A two-month course in quantitative analysis at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, rounded out the chemistry.
While at Edgewood he became a U.S. Aside from temporary duty at the Niirnberg war crimes trials, his fourteen months as a Special Agent were uneventful. Paul had a long and distinguished career as a chemist.
Paul passed away on January 12, 2003. There the technical manager, a doctor of chemistry, taught him the chemical background of leather production. He died in Hawaii at the age of 87 of leukemia.
District Court in Baltimore to be taught to about 30 GI’s.
Research notes
- Nuremberg
- Nazi Millionaires
Gallery
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 88 |
| Nara ASN | 31431249 |
| Nara Name | SCHEUER PAUL J |
| Nara State | 13 |
| Nara County | 25 |
| Nara POE | 1306 |
| Nara DOE | 250144 |
| Nara Grade Alpha | PVT |
| Nara Grade Code | 8 |
| Nara Branch Alpha | NO |
| Nara Branch Code | 2 |
| Branch | No branch assignment |
| Nara Term or Enlistment | 5 |
| Term of enlistment | Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law |
| Defer. Date | 0 |
| Nara Source | 0 |
| Nara Nativity | N1 |
| Nara Year of Birth | 15 |
| Nara Race | J |
| Nara Race Description | White not yet a citizen |
| Nara Education | 7 |
| Nara Civilian Occupation | 31 |
| Nara Marital Status | 6 |
| Nara Height (inches) | 0 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 1 |
| Class_ASN | 31431249 |
| Class_Name | SCHEUER, Paul J. |
| match_method | asn_exact_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Sources
- Wikipedia: Paul J. Scheuer
- Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2019-11-18 (1 post)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2023-03-02 (1 post)