{"id":802,"date":"2022-02-27T08:09:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/?p=802"},"modified":"2022-02-27T08:09:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-27T15:09:08","slug":"the-people-of-glenbow-chemist-wyvona-alexander-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/2022\/02\/27\/the-people-of-glenbow-chemist-wyvona-alexander-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"The People of Glenbow: Chemist \u2014 Wyvona Alexander Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"542\" height=\"702\" src=\"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/wyvona.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-803\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/wyvona.png 542w, https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/wyvona-232x300.png 232w, https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/wyvona-154x200.png 154w, https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/wyvona-463x600.png 463w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 542px) 100vw, 542px\" \/><figcaption>Wyvona Alexander, 1934; Drumright High School Senior Annual, Oklahoma; from\u00a0Ancestry.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>February 11th marks the seventh International Day of Women and Girls in Science and is the perfect time to highlight the scientific achievements of a former Glenbow resident: Wyvona Belle Alexander Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1919, Wyvona\u2019s family moved from Texas to Alberta. Within a year, they were living at Glenbow, where her father, Irwin Alexander, worked as the storekeeper of the Glenbow Supply Company Store. By June 1921, the family consisted of Irwin and his wife Lola, and their children: six-year-old Orval, five-year-old Wyvona, and one-year-old Sybil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Orval and Wyvona would have attended Glenbow School \u2014 when it was open. Classes were held only as long as the collected taxes were sufficient to pay the teacher\u2019s daily rate. The Alexander children overcame their indifferent introduction to formal education, however, and excelled at school upon their return to the United States sometime after May 1923.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wyvona\u2019s motto, as recorded in her high school yearbook, was \u201cintelligence reigns supreme.\u201d Her subsequent university education was hard won, as she paid her way by waiting tables, grading papers, and assisting in laboratories. She graduated from the Oklahoma College for Women, obtained a Masters degree in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1941, and was awarded a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1946.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While working for a chemical company, Wyvona \u201cimproved the chemistry of dyes, discovering how to add brightness to the colors, improving one of the blue dyes and creating a truly neutral grey dye.\u201d She then published reports for the National Academy of Sciences, \u201corganized projects at the Pentagon\u201d and \u201cled a group at George Washington University in exploring unique explosive compounds for the Navy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After her marriage in 1949, Wyvona continued her work as a chemist, and along with her husband, sponsored several academic awards to support chemistry and engineering students. Wyvona, a little girl from Glenbow, became a true-blue scientist and today serves as a bright light for girls aiming for a career in the sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article was originally printed in\u00a0<strong>THE\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>BERGEN NEWS<\/em><\/strong><em>\u00a0and is being reprinted with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>February 11th marks the seventh International Day of Women and Girls in Science and is the perfect time to highlight the scientific achievements of a former Glenbow resident: Wyvona Belle Alexander Lane. In 1919, Wyvona\u2019s family moved from Texas to Alberta. Within a year, they were living at Glenbow, where her father, Irwin Alexander, worked&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":805,"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions\/805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peyerl.ca\/quill\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}