John Desmond Kopp, whose chemistry education at McDaniel College led to a successful professional career, will have his name memorialized on campus in recognition by College trustees for his testamentary gift of $1.25 million. Trustees unanimously voted Feb. 24 to name a professorship in the sciences in Kopp’s honor.

A native of Solomons, Md., Kopp graduated in 1918 from the Western Maryland College Preparatory School and enrolled at the College the following fall. His undergraduate record was exemplary; he graduated in 1922 summa cum laude in chemistry and was the recipient of the Norment Prize for elocution.

Known to his classmates as “Des,” the 1922 Aloha yearbook noted that he delighted in playing his mandolin for coeds and that his music was “a thermometer of his feelings...when his social affairs wane then the sad strains of ‘In the Gloaming’ peal forth.”

His first employer after graduation was Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. In 1932, he was appointed an analytical and metallurgical chemist for Scovill Inc. in Waterbury, Conn., where he worked until retirement in 1962.

After retirement he and his wife Ethel moved to the town of Onancock on Virginia’s Eastern Shore where he “spent six months fishing” and in the off-season, enjoyed woodworking and built thousands of projects from his fishing boat to tables and corner cabinets. He was a lifelong contributor to the College’s annual fund and returned to campus to celebrate his 50th class reunion in 1972. He died in 1992 at age 91.

The John Desmond Kopp Professorship in the Sciences will provide substantially for the funding of the faculty position and supports programs and initiatives in the relevant department.