Horace G. Byers

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(1872 - 1956)
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BYERS, Horace Greeley, teacher and chemist, was born at Pulaski, Pa,, Dec. 26, 1872, son of Ambrose and Mary (McCracken) Byers, and a descendant of James Byers who came presumably from Scotland and settled in Virginia in the eighteenth century. He was graduated at Westminster college, New Wilmington, Pa., in 1895 with the degrees of A.B. and B.S. He was acting professor of science in Tarkio (Mo.) College in 1895-96, and acting professor of physics in Westminster College in 1896. After a postgraduate course he received the degree of A.M. from his alma mater in 1898 and that of Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University the following year. From 1899 to 1919 he was professor of chemistry in the University of Washington, and during this period he spent three summers as instructor in the University of Chicago, 1902-1903-1904; his sabbatical year (1908- 09) in Germany, France and England; and one half year (1916) as lecturer at Northwestern and Columbia universities.
During the European war he reorganized the Seattle chapter of the American Red Cross in 1917, served as chairman of the war emergency committee of the University of Washington, and organized with Major David Hall the University of Washington ambulance corps, in 1917. He entered upon active service with the 30th engineers in December, 1917, and during the greater part of the following year was in charge of the emergency unit, pyrotechnic section, chemical warfare, research division. In this capacity he succeeded in developing a series of shell linings for corrosive war gases; and made a study of various metallic, glass and enamel linings and their power of resistance to the corrosive action of the various gas warfare materials. He also developed a spontaneously inflammable liquid for war use. He received his discharge in December, 1918, with the rank of captain, and was later promoted to lieutenant colonel, O. R. C. C. W.
After the war he became professor in charge of the department of chemistry of Cooper Union, New York city. In 1928 he was appointed chief of the soil chemistry and physics division of the bureau of chemistry and soils, Washington, D. C.
He is the author of "Notes on Qualitative Analysis" (1912), "Inorganic Chemistry" (1916), "Laboratory Manual" (1916) and "Outline of Qualitative Analysis" (1922) and numerous technical papers appearing in scientific journals. Prof. Byers was a charter member of the American Institute of Chemistry, organized in 1923, and was elected its first president. He is also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow), the American Chemical Society (chairman of the Puget Sound section in 1915), the Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon and Alpha Chi Sigma. He is an Independent in politics and a communicant of the United Presbyterian church. His chief recreation is found in travel and tennis. He was married Aug. 26, 1903, to Harriette, daughter of William Lane of Chicago, Ill., and had five children: Ina Maude, Mary Lane, Jean, Ruth Naomi and Harriet Byers.
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