Gift To Endow Genetics Research Chair

Herchel Smith, developer of the first synthetic oral contraceptive who died last December, has bequeathed a sum to the University that will create a new professorship in molecular genetics.

With this bequest, Smith’s total donations to Harvard will near $100 million—making him one of the ten largest donors in the school’s history.

His gift will fund the Herchel Smith Harvard Scholarship for postgraduate study at Cambridge University and encourage an exchange program between Cambridge and Harvard postgraduates. The money will create Harvard’s first professorship in molecular genetics and also fund additional professorships in computer sciences, physics and mathematics.

Sarah O. Mackey, associate director of alumni affairs and development communications, said her office would not specify the exact amount of the gift.

Over the last 17 years, Smith’s earlier donations have sponsored a year of science and mathematics study at Cambridge University for nearly 40 postgraduates. And in 1992 he endowed the Herchel Smith professorship in molecular biology, currently held by Nancy E. Kleckner.

Though he never attended Harvard, Smith first decided to donate to the University because, during his time, he considered the Harvard chemistry department, along with that of Cambridge, to be among the best in the world, Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said in an e-mail statement.

Knowles said he just learned about this additional gift a few weeks ago.

“[Smith] was fiercely concerned for excellence, and wanted to facilitate the two-way exchange of creative graduate students and post-docs between Cambridge, England and Cambridge, Mass.,” Knowles said.

Knowles, who first met Smith in the 1960s at Oxford University, noted Smith’s commitment to science.

“He was a modest, charming, and focused friend, who passionately believed in the contribution that chemistry could make to biology and to medical science,” Knowles said. “This was, after all, where his own contributions had been made, and whence his wealth derived.”

Known for his work with steroids, birth control pills and hormone therapy, Smith gave millions that he earned from his patents to both Harvard, Cambridge and other universities.

Smith’s endowment aims to encourage the pursuit of scientific research, and comes as University President Lawrence H. Summers has placed renewed emphasis on biotechnology.

“Since [Smith] made his will many years ago, I think that this comes as a most fortunate coincidence with President Summers’ important concerns,” Knowles said.

Born in Plymouth, England, Smith attended Cambridge, where he received his bachelor and doctoral degrees. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Oxford University, he was an organic chemistry university lecturer at Manchester University.

He moved to the United States in 1961 to work for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Pennsylvannia where his research in synthetic steroid hormones helped formulate a cost-effective contraceptive, the Wyeth’s Ovral birth control pill, which was released in the United States in 1968.

—Staff writer Nalina Sombuntham can be reached at sombunth@fas.harvard.edu.