Nelson R. Trenner Sr. *35

NELSON RICHARDS TRENNER SR., a noted chemist and director of research at Merck & Co., died May 9, 1994, in Princeton of heart failure. He was 88.

Nelson prepared at Stuyvesant H.S. and earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from N.Y.U. After N.Y.U., as a Natl. Research Fellow, he spent several years doing postdoctoral research at Princeton, where he also taught in the chemistry department.

In 1937, Nelson joined Merck, where he special­ized in exploratory spectroscopy. He was instrumental in research that explored penicillin's molecular structure. In 1953, he was named a Merck Fellow, and N.Y.U. awarded him its Certificate of Distinction in 1954. When he retired in 1971, Nelson was a senior investigator and director of the department of drug metabolism at Merck. He was a 50-year member of the American Chemical Society.

From 1939-71, Dr. Trenner lived in Westfield, N.J., where, with other volunteer activities, he helped establish the Saturday Science Program for high school students. From 1971-90, Nelson lived in West Falmouth on Cape Cod, where his interests were fishing, seamanship, gardening, and scientific investigation.

In addition to seven grandchildren, Nelson is survived by his five children, Idamae, Kathryn, Nelson R. Jr., Georganna T. Krivonak, and Robert. His wife of 51 years, Kathryn F., died in 1990.