Charles Shaffer, the retired director of toxicology at American Cyanamid Corp., died Oct. 4, 2011. He was 94.
Shaffer graduated in 1938 from Lebanon Valley College, and in 1941 he earned a Ph.D. in biology from Princeton. From 1941 to 1952, he was at the Mellon Institute (now Carnegie Mellon University). Shaffer became the director of toxicology at American Cyanamid in 1953, and retired in 1980. In this position, he was in charge of all testing except for the drug division.
A pioneer in the field of toxicology (the science of dealing with the effects, antidotes, and detection of poisons), Shaffer was one of the founders of the Society of Toxicology in 1961, and its second president in 1962-1963.
Shaffer’s son, William ’68, relates that his father didn’t have a subject for his doctoral dissertation at Princeton and thus readily accepted his adviser Professor Wilbur Swingle’s suggestion to write on the emerging field of toxicology. This work was important in American Cyanamid’s hiring him.
Shaffer had been a sustaining member of the APGA since 1986.
He was predeceased in 2002 by Louise, his wife of 60 years. Shaffer is survived by two sons, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.