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Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History

Charles Holmes Herty (1867-1938)

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The editors of the 1914 Yackety Yack dedicated their yearbook to chemistry professor Charles Holmes Herty because he exemplified service to his region. A colleague remembered that Herty never "missed a chance to tell us that we should use chemistry to do something for our State or Country." Herty came to Chapel Hill in 1905 after he had already made a fortune by inventing a new system for gathering turpentine from pine trees. After he left Chapel Hill, he developed procedures to use southern pine trees to produce pulp for paper manufacturing. He also successfully lobbied for the 1930 Ransdell Act that established the National Institutes of Health, a government agency that conducts and supports medical research.