Arthur Allan Patchett ’51

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Art graduated from Middletown (N.Y.) High School. At Princeton, he majored in chemistry, graduating summa cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was a member of Court Club, roomed with Buzz Pohlmann, and was a coxswain on our crew for three years. 

Following Princeton he attended Cambridge for two years on a Fulbright, earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard, and spent two years working on the design of medicinally important compounds at the National Institutes of Health. 

He joined Merck in 1957 to begin a 44-year career that brought him many awards and honors as a widely renowned research chemist. He was directly involved in the discovery of the hypertension drugs Vasotec and Prinivil and the cholesterol-lowering drug Mevacor. He was author or co-author of 160 publications and 175 U.S. patents. His pioneering work in the discovery of statin helped save millions of lives around the world. He also took a leadership role in the American Chemical Society’s Medicinal Chemistry Division. 

Predeceased by his wife, Lois, Art died Dec. 2, 2022, in New Providence, N.J. He is survived by two sons.

Paw in print

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The cover of PAW’s December, 2024, issue, featuring a photo of Albert Einstein in a book-filled office with his secretary, Helen Dukas.
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