461st plaque

461st Bombardment Group (H)

Paul E. Blatz

1923 - 2008

Paul E. Blatz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1923, the son of a newspaper editor.  During World War II, he served as navigator in the 461st Bomb Group in Italy as a member of the United States Air Force.  He entered Southern Methodist University and received his B.S. in chemistry in 1951.

Paul married Nancy McGraw in January 1952, (She was deceased in February 1965).  He then married Eleanor Arlene Hoffman in 1965. Children: Francene, John, Roger, Bonnie, and Paul M.

In 1955, he received his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Texas, Austin, where his major professor was Roger J. Williams, former President of the American Chemical Society.  The research involved isolation of a nutritional factor.  In 1955 Dr. Blatz joined the Freeport Division of the Dow Chemical Company and did research in insecticide, monomers and finally polymers.  In 1959 he joined the Mobil Oil Company in Dallas and engaged in preparation and characterization of water soluble polymers for drilling fluid additives.

After a year on the faculty of New Mexico Highlands University, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wyoming in June 1964.  He joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as full Professor and Chairman in 1971.  He taught as a professor in The School of Basic Life Sciences.

Paul directed the Ph.D. theses of the following people: Ashoka Paul 1987, Wasi Ahmed, 1976, Hajime Kawashima 1975, James C. Aumiller 1973, William D. Totherrow 1973, Mow S. Lin 1972, Sobhi K. Al-Dilaimi 1971, Jonathan H. Mohler 1970, Nickly R. Baumgartner 1969, Raymond H. Johnson 1968, James 0. Erickson 1967, David L. Pippert 1967.

M.S. Theses directed: Florence Barker 1973.

In 1975 he was the Invited Speaker at the 8th annual Jerusalem Symposium on Auantum Chemistry and Chemistry, Jerusalem.  Achievements include establishment of relationship between electrosonic charge and wavelength in visual pigments.  Paul wrote and published 41 (Full Manuscripts).  Since 1964, Dr. Blatz has been interested in the chemistry of vision and in particular visualpigments, the complex substances found in the retina.  Upon receiving light, the retina initiates a neural impulse which travels to the brain.  His research has been supported by the Atomic Energy Commission and the National institutes of Health.  He is a member of the American Chemical Society, Biological Society, AAAS, Sigma Xi, American Society of Biological Chemists and the American Society for Photobiology.

Paul E. Blatz, 84, passed away peacefully at his home in Padre Lakes, Ivins, Utah on Thursday, July 3, 2008.