Fonds RC0011 - R.H.F. Manske fonds

Richard Helmuth Fred Manske, organic chemist, was born in Berlin, Germany on 14 September 1901 to John A. and Bertha (née Wruck) Manske. The family immigrated to Canada in 1907. He attended Queen’s University in 1924 where he received both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. Later he attended Manchester University where he did his doctoral degree in 1926. Manske worked with the National Research Council of Canada as Bursar in 1923-1924. Then from 1930 to 1943, he worked as an associate research chemist for the National Research Council. He also did some research with General Motors Corporation and had a fellowship at Yale University. In 1943 he began to work at the Dominion Rubber Company (later Uniroyal Ltd.) in Guelph, Ontario, as Director of Research. After his retirement from Uniroyal, he continued as an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo. McMaster University conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Science on him in 1960.

One of his major publications was Alkaloids: Chemistry and Physiology, a series of volumes which he edited from 1950 to 1977. In addition to his work as a chemist, he was an expert on the cultivation of orchids. He was married twice, first to Bessie Jean (d. 1959) and then to Doris Aileen. He had two daughters. He died in 1977 in Guelph. McMaster University has a scholarship, Manske-MacLean Bursaries in Chemistry, in his name.