Professor Emeritus Hal Harris and his wife, Mary, endowed a scholarship for UMSL chemistry students in 2018. It’s been growing thanks to qualified charitable distributions they’ve been making from an IRA. (Photo courtesy of Hal and Mary Harris)

By Melissa Landry, University Advancement

Mary and Hal Harris are committed to making an impact in the lives of young people who are passionate about science. At the University of Missouri–St. Louis, that impact comes from their generous support of a scholarship, which is growing thanks to qualified charitable distributions from their IRA.

Hal has been a member of the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry since 1970; he was named professor emeritus in 2015. He taught physical chemistry and studied the dynamics of chemical reactions experimentally and theoretically. Mary, meanwhile, taught middle school physical science and high school chemistry, retiring in 2010 after 34 years at John Burroughs School.

The opportunity to do research while also teaching was what drew Hal to UMSL. He and Mary met Joyce and Eugene Corey, along with a few other faculty from UMSL, at a meeting in Toronto in the late 1960s. Joyce and Gene shared their excitement about the new campus and invited Hal to visit and give a seminar.

Hal was no stranger to new institutions; he was a member of the second class at Harvey Mudd College in California and, after earning a PhD at Michigan State University, accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Irvine during its second year. Hal felt UMSL showed a lot of promise. His instincts led to a 45-year career that has helped shape the future of UMSL’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Hal discovered his love for chemistry at a young age. He worked as a child for the drugstore a few doors down from his father’s business, making deliveries, wiping off bottles and sweeping the floor. He became familiar with some of the chemicals and enjoyed experimenting with them to do reactions he had read about. One such demonstration involved starting a fire with water, the result of which turned his family’s dining table orange. Understandably, his mother was alarmed, but Hal found a simple chemical solution to the problem, restoring his mother’s rather laissez-faire attitude to his interest in science.

For Mary, her love of science came later. She enjoyed her chemistry classes in high school, but a challenging and often entertaining class with Professor Robert Plane at Cornell University helped ignite her passion for the field.

“Dr. Plane did all kinds of demonstrations in his lecture, and I mastered that course eventually,” Mary said. “It was hard for me, but it showed me a whole new world.”

She brought that excitement into her own classroom, designing experiments to help her students make the connection between theory and the real-world application of science.

Determined to continue their impact in the classroom during retirement, they endowed the Hal and Mary Harris Chemistry Scholarship at UMSL in 2018.

Hal received a four-year corporate scholarship for his undergraduate education that covered his expenses. Without that scholarship, there was no way that his family could have afforded his college education. Having seen firsthand the caliber of students at UMSL and the needs they often have, Hal knew he and Mary could make a difference.

The couple saved for an endowed scholarship gift, knowing that they could grow the fund over time and that it would continue making a difference for generations to come. Endowed gifts are powerful investments in the future of an institution. The principal of the gift is invested, while the earnings of the investment are used to fund a specific purpose, in this case, scholarships for chemistry students. Because the principal remains untouched, the fund can last in perpetuity.

Hal and Mary have found ways to grow the scholarship endowment that also benefit them, specifically by making qualified charitable distributions from their IRA and gifts of appreciated securities. QCDs are available to those 70½ and older at the time of the gift and must be sent directly from an IRA to UMSL. For those who must take a required minimum distribution, a QCD may satisfy part of all of an RMD without increasing income taxes for the donor.

Hal and Mary have also included UMSL in their legacy plans with a bequest in their will.

“I know the needs of the students here and what wonderful people they are,” Hal said. “So, our scholarship is really, largely to help people finish off their last couple of years in a chemistry major. One of the problems the students have is they work too many hours because they have to. Most of them don’t have very much support. And so, our scholarship helps them work fewer hours per week. We can’t pay for a full year of scholarship yet, but we’re working on it. We’re still adding to our scholarship regularly, so it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

“You know, Mary and I are just regular folks,” Hal added. “It is possible to save money and be able to do things like this. You don’t have to own your own company and have stock options that you can give away to make a contribution. And it’s really for your benefit as well. There’s a lot of satisfaction in being able to help young people.”

Hal and Mary have certainly done that. The nine students at UMSL who have been awarded the Hal and Mary Harris Chemistry Scholarship join a long list of students in the region who have found a love for science thanks to the Harrises.

The couple are committed to helping others in a variety of ways.

“It’s just our philosophy of life,” Mary said. “We just feel we can help others.”

For the past 10 years, they have adopted “100 Neediest” families during the holidays. Mary volunteers for a local resale store, which helped her find a new avenue for her creative spirit. While volunteering at the shop, Mary discovered an abundance of silk ties that had reached the end of their useful life. She saved them from the recycle bin, taking them apart to create fiber-art. She makes scenes of local landmarks, people’s homes, lighthouses and landscapes from the ties and she recycles frames or sews her own to put them in. She sells the works of art through the St. Louis Weavers Guild.

Hal retired from the board of the American Chemical Society’s St. Louis Section after more than three decades of service, including a stint as chair. He recently retired from the Creve Coeur Energy and Environment Committee and is treasurer of the St. Louis Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He is an enthusiastic tennis player and captains a United States Tennis Association team.

While both of their careers involved scientific demonstrations to show students the impact of chemical science on the world around them, Hal and Mary continue to demonstrate in their own lives how caring for others can make a world of difference for students and their families.