Using the family garage as a makeshift lab for his chemistry set experiments, a young Robert Pinnell seemed destined for a career minding test tubes and Bunsen burners. “I frequently scared the devil out of my mother,” he says, recalling those early years. “But she was very patient, occasionally asking me, ‘What is that smell?’ She always held on and hoped that I wouldn’t dissolve half the stuff in the garage.”

It was in high school that Pinnell’s chemistry interests developed, thanks to a perceptive teacher who loaned the promising teenager some bench space in the storeroom for experiments, in turn for his helping the teacher set up for his lab class. “I did many experiments with him,” Pinnell says. “By the time I got to college, I knew I wanted to be a chemist.”

Likewise, by the time he got to CMC 36 years ago, Pinnell also knew by his experiences just how crucial good mentoring is. So it’s not surprising when co-workers say that during his longstanding tenure as chemistry professor for the Joint Science department, one of Pinnell’s greatest achievements was making lab people out of generations of students.

Students walking into the lab at the W.M. Keck Science Center almost always encountered their instructor tinkering about, and it modeled an ethic that they responded to. “The welfare of the students always came first with Bob,” says friend and chemistry professor Tony Fucaloro. “He was always thinking, ‘What can I do to advance the education of the students?’ He helped set the tone and ambience in our department that still exists today—that students come first—and it’s made us a good department. I think that’s terrific.”

Pinnell and his wife, Sharron, came to Claremont in 1966. Pinnell had already earned his bachelor’s degree in science from then-Fresno State College, and had finished his graduate studies at the University of Kansas. The next two years were spent in postdoctoral work at the University of Texas and the plan was to work at a large university. “But then I came here,” Pinnell said. “And it changed everything. I was very impressed by the place.”

The state-of-the-art Keck Science Center, with its sophisticated, bathed-in-sunlight classrooms, work stations, and research space, wasn’t even envisioned in those days. Joint Science was housed in the humble Baxter Science Lab. A visiting Pinnell walked in one afternoon and saw professors Freeman Bovard and C. Leonard Dart (“a chemist and a physicist") at work with a rather bizarre apparatus they had constructed themselves to study the properties of frog tissue. “To this day, I am still fascinated by the work those two men were doing. They were having a great time being scientists!” Pinnell says, laughing.

It was all the proof he needed that Joint Science--and not a large university--was the place to spend his career. The beauty of the program, he says, is that even in the introductory level classes, student-teacher ratios aren’t that much higher than in the advanced courses. “You’re interacting with 15 to 30 students in the advanced classes, and when you get into the labs, you frequently break that down into a smaller number,” Pinnell says. “I know every person in my class, and for me, that’s quite important.”

The intimacy has remained intact despite measurable growth in the department from student-professor research opportunities, computer-based modeling, a spreading of the department’s reputation, and the success of its graduates. “When potential students visit,” Pinnell says, “they see this building, the equipment, and they see the classes. What is also important is that they will see this type of equipment in graduate school, and they will know how to use it."

Another advantage, Pinnell said, “is that our students get exposed to a lot of interdisciplinary ideas. They have to associate with chemists, and physicists, and biologists working together in the same building. I think that’s good for them. It’s certainly good for me.”

Two things the average CMCer may not know about Pinnell is that he is an amateur glass blower, and was able to construct some of his own lab apparatus. Secondly, although he teaches organic chemistry, he was trained as an inorganic chemist. Because of the breadth of his background and interdisciplinary interests, Bovard and he decided to alternate in teaching organic chemistry--so he expanded his knowledge of the field. “It’s a rare person who is willing and able to train himself like that,” Fucaloro said. “Actually, it’s quite remarkable.”

Chemistry professor Robert Pinnell says young people should be encouraged to use their imaginations. "Curiosity is very important in science," he said.