Walter Hugo Stockmayer was an internationally known chemist and university teacher. He was born on April 7, 1914 in Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. Growing up in Rutherford, NJ, he graduated from Rutherford High School and received an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1935, where he served as class President. He won a Rhodes scholarship and attended Jesus College of Oxford University (UK) from 1935 to 1937, earning a B.Sc. He returned to MIT, earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry under J. A. Beattie in 1940. In 1961, Professor Stockmayer moved to Dartmouth College and twice served as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry during his tenure. Officially retiring in 1979, as Emeritus, he continued to teach and advise Dartmouth undergraduate and graduate students through 2002. He served for more than 20 years as a founding associate editor of Macromolecules, a premier journal of the field published by the American Chemical Society. Professor Stockmayer was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Reagan in 1987. He died on May 9, 2004 in Norwich, Vermont, United States