Marie Maynard Daly

Dr. Marie Maynard Daly was the first African American woman chemist to receive a PhD in chemistry. In addition, she was part of a research team that was working on the precursors to DNA . Marie was born Marie Maynard Daly on April 16, 1921, to Ivan C. Daly and Helen Page, the first of three children. Her father, who had emigrated from the West Indies, received a scholarship from Cornell University to study chemistry; however, he had to drop out because he could not pay his room and board, and he became a postal worker. Daly’s interest in science came from her father’s encouragement and the desire to live his dream.” He later encouraged his daughter to pursue his dream, even though she was a woman and had brothers who were twins. In the 1920s, as a result of the women’s suffrage movement, some women began to aspire to achievement in areas outside the domestic sphere. Marie’s mother encouraged reading and spent many hours reading to her and her brothers. Marie’s maternal grandfather had an extensive library, including books about scientists, such as The Microbe Hunters by Paul De Kruff; she read that book and many others like it. Growing up in Queens, one of the boroughs of New York City, she attended the local public school, where she excelled. She was able to attend Hunter College High School, an all girls’ school affiliated with Hunter College for women. Since this was a laboratory school for Hunter College, the faculty encouraged the girls to excel in their studies. Since Marie had an aptitude for science, the teachers there encouraged her to study college-level chemistry while still in high school. One of the many advantages of living in New York City during that time was that students who had good grades could enter one of the tuition-free colleges run by the City of New York. As a result, Daly enrolled in Queens College, then one of the newest institutions in the City College system, in Flushing, New York.