(6 July 1907-7 March 1999), research chemist. (Mary Chisholm, M. J. Chisholm) Born in Lochiel Township, GC, presumably on her parents’ farm. Parents: Valentine G. Chisholm and his wife Catherine Ann MacDonald. After attending a primary school (called Lorne School) near her parents’ home and Alexandria High School, she entered Queen’s University in the fall of 1922 at the early age of 15, and received her B. A. in chemistry from Queen’s University in Oct. 1926, when she was only 19. She taught high school at Alliston, Ont, and studied as a dietician in Montreal, then for some ten years, dating evidently from the later 1920s, she was a TB patient at a sanatorium in Ottawa. In those days when fresh air was valued as a remedy for TB patients, Mary’s father prepared a screened-in porch for her to sleep in after her return from the sanatorium. Recovered and able to work, Mary Chisholm was employed by the National Research Council of Canada from 1941 till her retirement in 1967, becoming during those years the author or co-author of over 40 papers in chemistry.

     In a statement dated 23 Aug. 1967, C. Y. Hopkins, Senior Research Officer in the Chemistry of Fats and Oils Section, National Research Council of Canada, wrote:

     “Miss Mary J. Chisholm retired recently from her position as research chemist in the Division of Pure Chemistry, National Research Council, Ottawa. Miss Chisholm joined N. R. C. in 1941 and worked in the Protective Coatings Section for several years on war materials. Later, she was engaged in research problems on glyceride oils, particularly on new components of unusual vegetable oils and on some aspects of nutrition. During this time, Miss Chisholm was senior author or co-author of 44 research papers published in Canadian, American and British journals. She is one of the few Canadian women chemists, if not the only one, to have published in the Journal of the Chemical Society of London and to have received frequent mention in the Annual Reports of the Chemical Society.

     “The research program in which she participated has resulted in the discovery of ten new long chain acids, including epoxy, hydroxy, acetylenic, conjugated, and tetraenoic acids. The structure and configuration of all of these compounds were determined. Other unusual long chain acids were isolated for the first time from seed oils, including the first natural isomers of linoleic acid and such compounds as epoxystearic, 3-hexadecenoic, 11-octadecenoic, stearolic, and exocarpic acids.

     “Miss Chisholm is a graduate of Queen’s University. She will live in Alexandria, Ontario. Her hobbies are gardening, woodworking, and curling.”

     In retirement she lived in Alexandria, not far from her place of birth, in a bungalow she designed, and later in retirement homes. She never married. Remembered by acquaintances in Alexandria as both kind and clever, Mary Chisholm’s high achievement in the sciences was to all appearances unknown in GC in her lifetime. An obituary by Sandra Berry in the Glengarry News was headed appropriately “Local Chemist an Unknown Treasure.” Aged 91, Mary Jane Chisholm died at Glengarry Memorial Hospital. She is buried at St. Alexander’s cemetery, Lochiel. She was the sister of Angela Chisholm, who was known in religion as Sister Aimée de Marie.

Glengarry News 10, 24, & 31 March 1999, QAR Sept./Oct. 1999 * student records, Queen's University Archives (date of birth) * private information * 1967 statement (probably not previously published) printed here by kind permission of its holder, the National Research Council of Canada, which also kindly supplied a list of her publications * MacMaster,128, 142: Lorne School, portrait * receives B. A., GN 8 Oct. & 19 Nov. 1926 * obituary of her sister Janet Chisholm (1901-22 Dec. 1984), a nurse retired in Alexandria, GN 3 Jan. 1985