Daly, Marie Maynard, 1921-2003

Dr. Marie M. Daly was an outstanding member of the departments of biochemistry and medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1960 to 1986. Born in New York, Dr. Daly received her B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in chemistry in 1942 from Queens College. In 1943, she received her M.S. degree in chemistry from New York University, and in 1947, she received her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Columbia University. She was the first African-American woman in the United States to be awarded a Ph.D. degree in chemistry.

Dr. Daly was on the research and teaching staffs of Queens College, Howard University, the Rockefeller Institute, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She collaborated with Dr. Quentin Deming at the Goldwater Memorial Hospital in New York, and she came to Einstein with Dr. Deming in 1958. Her research centered largely on four areas. At the Rockefeller Institute she collaborated with Drs. A.E. Mirsky and V.G. Allfrey on the chemistry of histones, work that was fundamental in the field. With those investigators she also did important work on protein synthesis. Then, at Goldwater, and in her early years at Einstein, she did significant work on the biochemistry of cholesterol and its relation to hypertension.

In her last years at Einstein, she contributed significantly to the understanding of the uptake of creatine by muscle cells. (Creatine is an important compound in the bioenergetics of muscle.) Dr. Daly was engaged in teaching medical and graduate students at Einstein and was especially involved in recruitment and training of minority students. For many years she guided the careers of African-American students at Einstein.

Dr. Daly retired in 1986. She is remembered as a wonderful and generous person with a winning smile and dignified bearing. She was highly cultured and especially devoted to playing the flute. In later years, when cancer interfered with her ability to play the flute, Dr. Daly learned to play the guitar. She also was an excellent gardener and was devoted to her dogs. Dr. Daly was married to Vincent Clark, who predeceased her. She is survived by members of the Daly and Clark families. Dr. Daly died in October, 2003.

Marie Maynard Daly (April 16, 1921 – October 28, 2003) was an American biochemist. She was the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry (awarded by Columbia University in 1947).[3] Daly made important contributions in four areas of research: the chemistry of histones, protein synthesis, the relationships between cholesterol and hypertension, and creatine's uptake by muscle cells.[4]

Daly attended Hunter College High School, a laboratory high school for girls run by Hunter College faculty,[5] where she was also encouraged to pursue chemistry. She then enrolled in Queens College, a small, fairly new school in Flushing, New York. She lived at home to save money and graduated magna cum laude from Queens College with her bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1942.[3][6][7] Upon graduation, she was named a Queens College Scholar,[8] an honor that is awarded to the top 2.5% of the graduating class.[5]

Labor shortages and the need for scientists to support the war effort enabled Daly to garner fellowships to study at New York University and Columbia University for her master's and Ph.D. degrees, respectively.[5]

Daly worked as a laboratory assistant at Queens College while studying at New York University for her master's degree in chemistry, which she completed in 1943. She became a chemistry tutor at Queens College and enrolled in the doctoral program at Columbia University, where she was supervised by Mary Letitia Caldwell, for a Ph. D. thesis "A Study of the Products Formed By the Action of Pancreatic Amylase on Corn Starch" receiving her her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1947.[9][2][6] She was the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Columbia University and the first African American woman to receive a chemistry Ph.D. in the United States.[3]

Career
Daly worked as a physical science instructor at Howard University, from 1947 to 1948 while simultaneously conducting research under the direction of Herman Branson. After being awarded an American Cancer Society grant to support her postdoctoral research, she joined Alfred E. Mirsky's group at the Rockefeller Institute, which studied the cell nucleus and its constituents.[9] This was the start of a seven-year research program at the Rockefeller Institute of Medicine, where Daly examined how proteins are constructed in the body.[10] At the time, the structure and function of DNA were not yet understood.[11]

Daly began working in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1955. In collaboration with Quentin B. Deming, she studied arterial metabolism.[9][3] She continued this work as an assistant professor of biochemistry and of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, where she and Deming moved in 1960.[9] From 1958 to 1963, she also served as an investigator for the American Heart Association.[12]

During her final years at Albert Einstein College, per Daly's efforts to increase minority enrollment in professional and graduate schools, she helped run the Martin Luther King -Robert F. Kennedy program to help prepare black students for admission.[13] In 1971 she was promoted to associate professor.[9]

In 1975, Daly was one of 30 minority women scientists to attend a conference examining the challenges facing minority women in STEM fields. The conference was held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This resulted in the publication of the report, The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science (1976) which made recommendations for recruiting and retaining minority women scientists.[7][14]

Daly was a member of the board of governors of the New York Academy of Sciences for two years.[15] She was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Cancer Society. Daly was designated as a career scientist by the Health Research Council of the City of New York.

Daly retired in 1986 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and in 1988 established a scholarship for African American chemistry and physics majors at Queens College in memory of her father.[9][16] In 1999, she was recognized by the National Technical Association as one of the top 50 women in Science, Engineering and Technology.[17]

There is limited information about her personal life and motivation for science.[37] Daly's father, Ivan C. Daly, had immigrated from the British West Indies, found work as a postal clerk and eventually married Helen Page of Washington, D.C.[28] They lived in New York City, and Daly was born and raised in Corona, Queens.[3] She often visited her maternal grandparents in Washington, where she read about scientists and their achievements in her grandfather's extensive library. She was especially impressed by Paul de Kruif’s The Microbe Hunters, a work which influenced her decision to become a scientist.[6]

Daly's interest in science was also influenced by her father, who had attended Cornell University with the intention of becoming a chemist, but had been unable to complete his education due to a lack of funds.[9] Daly would thus complete her father's ambition by majoring in chemistry. Years later, she started a Queens College scholarship fund in his honor to assist minority students majoring in chemistry or physics.[6]

Daly married and took the name Marie Maynard Daly Clark.[11] Her husband died before her and they did not have any children.[37] She died on October 28, 2003.[11]

Legacy
On February 26, 2016, the Founding Principal of the new elementary school P.S.360Q, Mr. R. Emmanuel-Cooke, announced that the school would be named "The Dr. Marie M. Daly Academy of Excellence" in honor of the Queens resident.[38][39] Additionally Einstein College also created an annual memorial lecture called The Marie M. Daly Memorial Celebration that is sponsored by the division of Biomedical Sciences and the Einstein Minority Scientist Association (EMSA).[40] Every year guest speakers are invited to give a lecture highlighting diversity and contribution of minorities to science.