William Moore Craig (1888 - 1983)

The young man who actually weighed the coin I talked about yesterday was William Moore Craig, who served as an instructor in Rice’s Chemistry Department for only two years, from 1923 to 1925. He grew up in central Texas and graduated from Southwestern in Georgetown in 1906 and then again with an MA in 1907. After teaching for a bit he returned to school, this time entering the University of Texas for a MS in Chemistry. After service in World War I Craig went off to Harvard and began working with Professor T.W. Richards on the atomic weight of gallium, interrupting his studies when he came to teach at Rice in 1923. Craig was lured away in 1926 by some classmates from UT who were among the very first faculty members at the new Texas Technological College in Lubbock and he remained at Tech (with a break to finish his doctorate) until he retired in 1958. (printed 10/15/15 in Rice History Corner (Rice University Archives). ricehistorycorner.com

Retired in 1958 as Professor Emeritus in Chemistry at Texas Tech University after 32 years of service. The symbols of the periodic table and of the alchemical past were cut into the face of the Craig building from Craig's designs. The building was constructed during Craig's early years on the faculty, in a time when chemistry was taught, like all other subjects, in what is now called the Administration building. Chemistry was in its basement. Craig entered Harvard in 1919 and began research with T.W. Richards on the atomic weight of gallium, the work which, in part, was to bring Richards the Nobel Prize for atomic weight determinations. (information taken from The Test Tube, Chemistry Department Newsletter/Texas Tech University 1984)