Donald A. McQuarrie, 72, an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of California, Davis, and well-known textbook author, died on July 6, 2009.
Born in Lowell, Mass., McQuarrie earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute in 1958, an M.A. degree in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1960, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry under Terrell L. Hill from the University of Oregon in 1962.
McQuarrie began his career as an assistant professor at Michigan State University before going to work for North American Aviation from 1964 to 1968. He served as a full professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, from 1968 to 1978, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975. He then accepted a full professorship on the faculty of UC Davis, where he was awarded the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award. He retired in 1994 but continued writing textbooks.
He was the author or coauthor of 10 textbooks, most notably “Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach” with John D. Simon and the introductory text “General Chemistry” with Peter A. Rock. McQuarrie shared the book editing and writing of the accompanying textbook materials with his wife, Carole, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry.
McQuarrie also authored 95 scientific papers, the most cited of which involve the application of stochastic theory to chemical kinetics and chromatography. He was a member of ACS, joining in 1969.
In addition to his wife of 50 years, McQuarrie is survived by his children, Allan and Dawn.
