MULTHAUF, Robert P(hilip) 1919-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 8, 1919, in Sioux Falls, SD; died of cardiopulmonary arrest May 8, 2004, in San Rafael, CA. Museum director, historian, and author. Multhauf had a long association with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of History and Technology, where he was at the forefront of the new discipline of science history. Completing his undergraduate work at Iowa State University in 1941, he worked as a chemical engineer for Hercules Power for two years before joining the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant junior grade. After the war, he worked in Japan for a year as a chemical engineer for U.S. Rubber Co. and two years for the U.S. government before returning to school at the University of California at Berkeley. There he earned an M.A. in history in 1950 and a Ph.D. in medieval chemistry in 1953. A year's fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University Department of the History of Medicine was followed by his employment at the Smithsonian. Beginning as curator of the division of engineering, he became head curator of the department of science and technology. From 1967 to 1969 he was director of the Museum of the History of Technology before being named senior historian, a position he held until his 1987 retirement. From 1964 to 1978, Multhauf was also editor of Isis, the leading journal of the history of science. Multhauf was the author of several science history books, including The Origins of Chemistry (1967) and Neptune's Gift: A History of Common Salt (1978).

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Washington Post, June 7, 2004, p. B4.