Mrs. Lucy B. McCrone
Lucy B. McCrone (1923-2011) was senior research microscopist and charter member and director of McCrone Research Institute in Chicago from 1960 until 2011. She was the wife of the late Dr. Walter C. McCrone.
Biography
Lucy was born in 1923 in Buffalo, and received a B.A. in chemistry from Wellesley College in 1945. After graduating, Lucy was hired as analytical chemist at Arthur D. Little in Cambridge, Mass., where she worked from 1945 to 1957. In her laboratory, she met Walter C. McCrone, who was there on a consulting visit. They married in 1957 and she came to Chicago to work with him as chemical microscopist for Walter C. McCrone Associates until 1984.
Cofounder of McCrone Research Institute
In 1960, Lucy and Dr. McCrone founded the McCrone Research Institute in Chicago, where she went to work full time after retiring from McCrone Associates. Her passion for the microscope and microscopy education often found her at the McCrone institute seven-days a week and she always remained involved with the not-for-profit teaching and research organization that she affectionately called home for more than 50 years.
Author and Editor
Professional microscopists and students alike remember Lucy as the co-author (together with Dr. McCrone and John G. Delly) of the Polarized Light Microscopy course manual, which is widely used today and regarded as the “PLM Bible.” She also served as associate editor of The Microscope journal. Lucy was a skilled chemist and microscopist who genuinely cared for her co-workers and students all of whom she considered her family. Her wish was for McCrone Research Institute to continue to fulfill her and Dr. McCrone’s dream of advancing the microscope and chemical microscopy.