author
William McPherson
1864–1951
Best known as a chemistry educator and longtime Ohio State faculty member, he also briefly led the university as acting president. His textbooks helped shape how chemistry was taught to generations of students in the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
An Elementary Study of Chemistry
by William McPherson, William Edwards Henderson
About the author
Born in 1864 near Xenia, Ohio, William McPherson built his career around chemistry and higher education. He studied at Ohio State University, later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and returned to Ohio State, where he taught chemistry and spent decades on the faculty.
Alongside his academic work, he wrote and co-wrote influential chemistry textbooks and laboratory manuals, including An Elementary Study of Chemistry. Those books were widely used and helped make complex scientific ideas more approachable for students.
McPherson also served as acting president of Ohio State University from 1938 to 1940. He died in 1951, remembered both as a university leader and as a teacher whose writing had a lasting place in science education.