James K. Elwood was born in 1936 in Ladysmith, WI. His interest in science was kindled by a microscope set he received while in Fourth Grade. In those days it was a simple matter to order replacement chemicals by mail. After graduating as salutatorian from Ladysmith High School, he attended Wisconsin State College in Eau Claire, which is now a branch of the University of Wisconsin. He graduated magna cum laude in 1958 with majors in chemistry and mathematics. In the fall, he began his graduate work at Michigan State University in E. Lansing, MI., where, under the supervision of Robert Herbst, his thesis work involved the synthesis of tetrazole analogs of glutamic acid. This work was hampered by the discovery that tetrazoles, when treated with acetic anyhydride, rearrange to 1,3,2-oxadiazoles.
In September 1953 Jim began work at Kodak Research Labs in Jack Gates’ Emulsion Addenda Synthesis Laboratory. This work included the syntheses of antifoggants and developers along with the study of some Claisen rearrangements involving pyrazoles which led to a publication. A few years later he moved to Don Heseltine’s Sensitizing Dye Synthesis Laboratory. One of his initial projects involved the preparation of cyanine dyes containing the phenalene ring system in place of the polymethine chain. Two publications resulted from this interesting work. Another interesting project was the preparation of cationic cyanine dyes having lanthanide chelate counter anions.
Over the years, the original Sensitizing Dye Synthesis Laboratory underwent a number of changes in name, emphasis, and lab heads. As a result, Jim was able to work on a number of projects at various times, including nucleating agents, spectral sensitizing dyes for reversal systems as well as negative systems, conventional image dyes, and metallizable image dyes. A few more joint publications and about a dozen patents resulted.
Jim wrote a computer program to calculate the basicities of basic nuclei which correlated well with their measured basicities when expressed in energy terms.
He also conducted modeling studies on the structural features of sensitizing dyes with a view of reducing dye stain.
Jim has two sons, John and Christopher, with his former wife Donna, and one grandson, Keane. John is an associate professor of physics and current department head at E. Stroudberg University in Pennsylvania.
In retirement, Jim spends time gardening, playing the piano and pet-sitting for his sons.
When asked if he would do anything differently if he had the chance, he said: “Probably not, since my choices always followed my interests”.
