Quaesita Cromwell Drake (August 29, 1889 – August 7, 1967) was an American chemist. She was a professor and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Delaware for 38 years, from 1917 until her retirement in 1955. She was elected president of the Delaware chapter of the American Association of University Women in 1924.
Early life and education Drake was born in Camden, New Jersey and raised in Haddonfield, New Jersey,General Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Vassar College, Volume 4, p. 319. Vassar College, The A. V. Haight Company, 1910. Accessed March 21, 2023. "Quaesita C. Drake, [born] Camden, N. J.; [residence while in college] Haddonfield, N. J., Camden and Atlantic City, N. J.; [present residence] 301 Market St. Camden." the daughter of Herbert Armitage Drake and Sacia Hersey Nye Drake. Her father was a lawyer. A graduate of the 1906 class of Haddonfield Memorial High School,"A Day's Events at Haddonfield; High School Class Day Exercises Last Night Very Interesting", Courier-Post, June 6, 1906. Accessed March 21, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "The class day exercises of the Haddonfield High School took place at Clement's Opera House last evening and a large attendance was present. Nearly all the members of the class, seventeen in number, took part in rendering the program.... The class song, composed by Quaesita C. Drake was sung in good form." she graduated from Vassar College in 1910,Vassar College, Vassarion (1910 yearbook): 58. via e-Yearbook and earned a master's degree there in 1911."Candidates for the Second Degree in Arts" Vassar College (June 1, 1911): 730. She completed doctoral studies in organic chemistry at the University of Chicago, with a dissertation advised by Julius Stieglitz, titled "An Investigation of the Possibility of Re-arranging an Acyl-β-alkyl-hodroxylamine" (1922).William Albert Noyes, "Biographical Memoir of Julius Stieglitz (1867-1937)" (National Academy of Sciences 1939): 308. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Career Drake was a member of the faculty at the University of Delaware beginning in 1917 at the Women's College of the university. She was promoted to full professor status in 1920, served as acting dean of the women's college in 1927, and was the college's first chemistry department chair. She was the most senior faculty member with 38 years of teaching when she retired from the university in 1955.
Drake was a charter member and president of the Delaware state chapter of the American Chemical Society, and associate editor of the chapter's publication, the Del-Chem Bulletin. She also served on the national council of the American Chemical Society. She was vice-president of the University of Delaware chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honor society, and president of the Pennsylvania-Delaware section of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).
Personal life Drake died in 1967, in Wilmington, Delaware, at the age of 77. The Quaesita Drake Scholarship Fund was endowed in her memory. In 1973, Quaesita Drake Hall, a chemistry teaching laboratory, was dedicated to the campus of the University of Delaware.Burmeister, John L. "From the Associate Chair: Changing of the Guard" Blue Hen Chemist 34(August 2007): 1. Her papers are in the University of Delaware Archives.Quaesita Cromwell Drake Papers, University of Delaware Archives.
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