William Bonner
1920-Oct. 1, 2007
Stanford, California

William Bonner, 87, Stanford University professor emeritus of chemistry, died Oct. 1.

He was born in Chicago. He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1941 and a doctorate degree in chemistry from Northwestern University in 1944.

After working at Northwestern as an instructor, he joined the Stanford faculty in 1946. He was made assistant professor in 1947 and earned a full professorship in 1959. He was a member of the Stanford faculty for 37 years, doing teaching and research in organic chemistry. He studied amino acids, the building block of proteins.

He earned a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 1952 and was the author of more than 200 scientific papers and publications.

He was also an avid photographer and landscape painter. Bonner is survived by his second wife, Norma Bonner; first wife, Cyrena Nelson of Menlo Park; and children, R. Nelson Bonner of Pacific Grove, Dwarka Bonner of Taos, N.M., Jay Bonner of Santa Fe, N.M., and Terra Miller of Menlo Park, all from his first marriage.

Tags: teacher/educator