Dr. Harry Wesley Coover, Jr

Dr. Harry Wesley Coover, Jr, 94, a twentieth century icon of science, technology, and industry died Saturday March 26, 2011 at his residence in Kingsport, TN.

The cause was congestive heart failure. Known as the inventor of Super Glue, Harry was born March 6, 1917 in Newark, Delaware. The son of a German Pennsylvania Dutch family; he was quite a rounder in his youth, playing in a band and figuring various entrepreneurial activities to make spending money in his adolescence. He was unfortunately struck by a train as he was first driving; caught at the wrong time on the railroad tracks. He was left in a coma for several months. Following being nursed back to health by his sisters; he was recognized as a promising student by a tutor. He studied and passed the NY Regents exam. Then his uncle Rusty, a traveling pharmaceuticals salesman, helped finance his college education by selling booze out of his trunk during Prohibition to the local medical establishment.

He went on to receive a degree in Chemistry from Hobart College where Dr Ralph Bullard was his patron and mentor. Then on to Cornell University studying with Dr. Debye, and ultimately received his MS and PHD; and in the process for his dissertation, discovered a commercial synthesis for Vitamin B6.

Thereafter, he had offers from DuPont but was lured to Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY. His job was as a research chemist. In 1950 he was transferred to Tennessee Eastman Company, then a division of Eastman Kodak, where he rose through the ranks to become Director of Research and ultimately Vice President of Eastman Kodak, Chemical Division for Development. Along the way he and his team of chemists achieved more than 460 patents making him one of the most prolific patent holders in US history. His work was in polymers, organophosphate chemistry, the gasification of coal and of course, cyanoacrylate Super Glue.

A lab accident famously produced the development of Super Glue. These compounds were being studied for use in optically perfect gun sights and impact resistant jet canopies. His assistant came in distressed that the brand new refractometer prisms were ruined having been glued together, that was the "Eureka" moment.

Later Eastman 9-10; as it was called, since it took 10 seconds to bond, was featured on live TV with Gary Moore for "I've got a Secret". A part of early television history, Gary Moore at the last minute jumped on the bars with the glued metal cylinders held by one drop of adhesive. Both Harry and Gary were suspended into the air thus preventing failure on live TV and shame for its inventor. In his later work years Harry developed a management method of programmed innovation which influenced industrial research labs across the country for results- based R & D.

He was honored over the years with the Southern Chemist Award and was the Gold Medalist of the Industrial Research Institute, for which he served as president in 1982. Also a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio by the US Patent Office in 2004. Recently, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at the White House for 2009 by President Obama. A man of dazzling physical presence, a wonderful patriarch and leader, his favorite phrase was from the Flintstones: "Ya Ba Da Ba Doo"!!!!

He was predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Muriel Zumbach Coover.

He is survived by Harry Wesley Coover, III of Phelps, NY and Dr. Stephen Rohm Coover of Oak Ridge, TN and their spouses; and daughter Melinda Rohm Coover Paul, M.D., of Greensboro, NC and her spouse. He has four grandchildren: Brett Coover, Dana Coover, Vincent Adam Paul and Kirsten Rohm Paul.

Dr. Coover's Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at the Allendale Mansion. The family will receive friends following the service.

Memorials for Dr. Coover may be made to Allandale Mansion Preservation Trust 4444 West Stone Dr. Kingsport, TN. 37660.