Merck, George

Merck, George W. "Extracts from Welcoming Address" Merck Co. Rahway, 1933. 

George T. Wildman, Chair, Merck Chemical Manufacturing Division Glenn T. Bodman, Eastman Kodak Company Louis P. Bosanquet, Monsanto Chemical Company Donald J. Connolley, Akzo Chemicals, Inc. 

However, it was not until 1967 that the technology was woken from its slumber by Americans James Fergason and George Heilmeier. These two developed the first technical applications of liquid crystals in thermography and the first liquid crystal displays Merck resumed its interest in liquid crystals, and the business began. 

At first, George Merck merely ran the American branch of dad s export business. However, in that era of high tariffs, he figured it would make sense to start manufacturing his own supply. In 1900 he bought some 120 acres of swamps and woodland in Rahway, New Jersey, for a manufacturing plant, followed by a factory in St. Louis. Among his products were iodides, bismuths, morphine, and cocaine—the last two considered medicines at the turn of the century. 

Like his ancestor Friedrich, George launched his business venture right at a cultural turning point. America was leaping into the industrial age. Just before George Merck... 

George Merck objected he was by then a U.S. citizen with a growing brood of American-born children (even if he did tend to hire a lot of German immigrants). The government nevertheless took the 80 percent of Merck s 10,000 shares that were owned by the German parent company—George owned the rest personally—and put them up for sale. 

If George Merck the elder officially created the American Merck 8c Co., George the younger created the conglomerate it would become. 

But George W. Merck didn t want to rely on professors handouts. He would create labs that would be as good as and look just like those in the university. To do so, the company brought in respected academics like Max Tishler of Harvard and Alfred Newton Richards of the University of Pennsylvania. It set up a new pharmacological lab, the Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research, with its own board of directors. 

First, unlike every predecessor going back to George Merck, he was an outsider. He hadn t spent a single day working at the company he didn t have the network or know the corporate culture. 

Along with the hominess comes an inevitable sense of history. George W. Merck had his headquarters in the brick building at the end of the entrance drive, with the three... 

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