Frank H. Westheimer, 95, influential Harvard chemist

Retired Harvard University professor Frank H. Westheimer, a major force in 20th century chemistry who served as a science adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Cambridge, relatives said yesterday. He was 95.

Professor Westheimer was at the vanguard of groundbreaking research that integrated physical and organic chemistry, changes that led to the creation of complex molecules and new medicines.

"These fundamental advances in the theory of chemical reaction mechanisms are the bedrock of modern chemistry and the basis for much of its current success in guiding research," wrote Elias J. Corey, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University, in an obituary for the university.

In 1950, Professor Westheimer shifted his research to enzyme reactions and biochemistry, which led to a new understanding of biological and biochemical processes.

In 1988, Professor Westheimer won the Priestly Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor.

Upon accepting the award, Professor Westheimer said: "Whether I would have made a larger contribution to chemistry if I had done fewer things and exploited them better, well, no one will ever know.

"What is certain is that his research was deeply influential, enormously instructive to his colleagues, and empowering to their science," wrote Corey, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1990.

In 2002, Harvard university created the Frank H. Westheimer Medal, which is bestowed for distinguished research in chemistry.

"A constant of Frank's career has been the ability to take up an important scientific problem, solve it in an elegant and definitive way, and open a whole new field of research," Corey said then.

Born in Baltimore, Professor Westheimer graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932. Three years later, he received a doctorate from Harvard.

In 1936, he took a faculty position at the University of Chicago. He served as a supervisor at the National Explosives Research Laboratory during World War II and later returned to Harvard as a professor in 1953.

He served as a science adviser to President Johnson and in 1966 chaired the influential Committee of the US National Academy of Sciences, which helped bring federal support of the chemical sciences.

Over the years, Professor Westheimer won awards such as the US National Medal of Science, the US National Academy Award in Chemical Sciences, and the Robert A. Welch Foundation Award in Chemistry.

In a telephone interview, his daughter Ruth Susan Westheimer of Worcester, described him as a "wonderful father, a wonderful person, a wonderful teacher."

She had first-hand experience about the quality of his teaching. In 1970, she took his organic chemistry class at Harvard, for which he created a blind grading system so she couldn't be treated differently from other students.

She received a B minus in the class.

"He had impeccable integrity," she said. "He was a really special human being, and that opinion was shared by hundreds of people all over the world."

Professor Westheimer's wife of 64 years, Jeanne, died in 2001. She was 86.

The couple had many friends and often entertained.

"Weekend dinners at their home were filled with humor and laughter, but also with penetrating analyses and discussions of world events and problems," Corey wrote. "Westheimer's command of national issues was extraordinary, as was the depth and power of his insight."

He added the professor won many admirers.

He had "a powerful intellect, great personal integrity and courage, extraordinary dedication to scientific discovery, and a deep concern for country and humankind," Corey wrote.

Professor Westheimer also leaves his daughter Ellen of Carlisle.

A memorial service will be announced.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this obituary.