Ernest H. Volwiler Biography: A Career at Abbott Laboratories

In 1918, Ernest H. Volwiler joined Abbott Laboratories as a research chemist. By 1950, he was its president. Between those milestones, his work took him from manufacturing plants and synthetic-drug laboratories to the development of a major anesthetic and the demands of wartime pharmaceutical production.

One of his most consequential achievements was shared. Volwiler and fellow chemist Donalee L. Tabern developed Pentothal, a historically important intravenous anesthetic, through years of chemical synthesis and evaluation. Their partnership is central to a career spanning research, manufacturing, and company leadership.

A Quick Look at the Life of Ernest H. Volwiler

From an Ohio Farm to University Chemistry

Volwiler was born in Hamilton, Ohio, and grew up on a farm nearby. Looking back in a 1986 oral history, he described his parents as immigrants from Germany and recalled attending a one-room rural school. He also remembered teaching for a year at Reilly Township School before going to college.

He entered Miami University in 1911. In his recollection, family emphasis on education and careful use of summer sessions and examination credits helped him complete his degree in three years. His interest in chemistry, he said, grew through teaching by John C. Hessler, with James Egan and Harvey Brill also contributing to his training in organic chemistry.

After earning his chemistry degree at Miami in 1914, he studied at the University of Illinois, completing a master’s degree in 1916 and a doctorate in 1918. Graduate education required financial choices. Volwiler later recalled that teaching, fellowships, and summer work in chemical production helped sustain him during those years.

The Decision to Complete a Doctorate

Before finishing his doctoral studies, Volwiler considered leaving for an industrial job. In his later account, glassblower Paul Anders urged him to consider the value of a doctorate if he wanted to direct a laboratory. Volwiler said the advice changed his decision: he remained at Illinois and completed his PhD under Roger Adams.

Volwiler remembered the advice as a turning point in his decision to finish his education. His relationship with Adams also became important when he entered pharmaceutical research.

Joining Abbott as Synthetic Medicine Developed

In 1918, Volwiler joined Abbott Laboratories as a research chemist. He later recalled that Abbott founder Wallace C. Abbott recruited him after discussions with Roger Adams about pharmaceutical manufacturing needs, including work connected to a U.S. Navy contract.

In Volwiler’s description, the company’s synthetic-chemistry operation was small. His early work was also practical: he remembered spending much of his first year in a plant before concentrating more heavily on new compounds. The shift from extracting medicinal substances from natural materials toward synthesizing drugs formed part of the environment in which he built his career.

Volwiler became chief chemist in 1920. Abbott’s historical chronology credits him and Roger Adams with developing the local anesthetic Butyn in 1922. During the 1920s, Volwiler also recalled recruiting scientists through his academic contacts, adding to the personnel available for medicinal-chemistry research.

Nembutal, Tabern, and the Development of Pentothal

Research on barbiturates became one of Volwiler’s defining scientific contributions. He worked on Nembutal, or pentobarbital, and subsequently joined a sustained research effort that produced Pentothal, or thiopental sodium, an important intravenous anesthetic in the history of medicine.

Donalee L. Tabern joined Abbott in 1926. Volwiler later recalled preparing a chemical intermediate in Nembutal work and asking Tabern to complete the next stage. He openly credited Tabern with substantial hands-on work. In the later Pentothal program, Volwiler said the two scientists studied many chemical variants of sleep-producing compounds, with Tabern able to devote more of his time to making and screening them.

An important line of experimentation involved introducing sulfur into the chemical structure. Volwiler’s account describes a program of sustained variation and evaluation rather than a single dramatic discovery. Physicians, including John S. Lundy at Mayo Clinic and Ralph M. Waters at the University of Wisconsin, were part of the wider medical evaluation connections described in his oral history. Clinical evaluations by these physicians complemented the chemists’ research.

Pentothal emerged from their research in the 1930s. Its discovery and introduction have been dated variously to 1934, 1935, and 1936, without a settled distinction among those milestones. The legal record is more precise: U.S. Patent No. 2,153,729, Thiobarbituric acid derivatives, was granted on April 11, 1939, naming Volwiler and Tabern as joint inventors.

Volwiler later acknowledged Tabern’s hands-on contribution: “Tabern did most of that because he could spend full time on it.” Decades later, both men received recognition from the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Leading Research Through World War II

By 1930, Volwiler had become Abbott’s director of research; in 1933 he advanced to vice president of research and development. Those responsibilities placed him in senior research leadership when World War II increased the importance of pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Abbott expanded production of sulfa drugs and penicillin during the war and joined a government-requested penicillin-production consortium in 1942. Volwiler helped lead Abbott’s contribution to the broader wartime effort to expand pharmaceutical production.

Volwiler recalled the demands of increasing production: more people, facilities, and equipment. He was also clear that Abbott had not originated the major new sulfa drugs. His wartime contribution lay in research leadership and the manufacture of medicines on a larger scale.

After the war, Volwiler recalled taking part in a scientific inspection group that visited German chemical plants. He said the group learned about highly toxic organophosphorus compounds and relayed information to Allied headquarters.

From Research Executive to Abbott President

After the war, Volwiler’s company role broadened. He served as Abbott’s executive vice president from 1946 to 1950, then became president and general manager in 1950. His progression from chemistry work to company leadership had unfolded over more than three decades.

As president, he faced choices extending beyond an individual research project. In his later account, Volwiler said he reduced some product lines while retaining certain low-volume medicines that mattered to patients. He also identified diagnostics, beginning with radioisotopes, as an important area of expansion during his presidency.

Tabern had led Abbott’s early radiopharmaceutical work, and by 1948 the company was supplying radiopharmaceuticals to medical and research institutions. During his presidency, Volwiler emphasized the continued expansion of diagnostics.

Abbott experienced strong financial performance during Volwiler’s leadership, according to Harvard Business School’s historical profile. In 1958, he became chairman of the Abbott board, and in 1961 he shifted to a consulting role.

Service to Chemistry and National Science

Volwiler remained active in professional scientific leadership while his corporate responsibilities grew. In 1950, the same year he became Abbott president, he served as president of the American Chemical Society. He later chaired the society’s board from 1954 through 1956.

The American Chemical Society awarded him the Priestley Medal in 1958. He served on the U.S. National Science Board from 1958 to 1964, a role extending his work beyond pharmaceutical industry management.

In 1986, the National Inventors Hall of Fame inducted Volwiler and Tabern for their work on Pentothal. The joint honor came decades after their research partnership.

Later Life and a Legacy of Collaborative Research

Volwiler died in Lake Forest, Illinois, on October 3, 1992, at age 99. A contemporary professional obituary remembered him as both a former Abbott chairman and a former president of the American Chemical Society.

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy also maintains the Volwiler Research Achievement Award in his memory. It honors research contributions in academic pharmacy, extending his name into a field shaped by the kind of scientific work in which he spent much of his career.

From a chemistry doctorate to Abbott’s presidency, Volwiler’s career crossed the boundaries between laboratory discovery, manufacturing, and management. His partnership with Tabern remained one of its defining achievements—a reminder that the pharmaceutical advances associated with his name were also the work of collaborators and research teams.

Timeline

These milestones trace Volwiler’s education, research partnerships, leadership roles, and professional recognition.

1893

Born August 22 in Hamilton, Ohio.

1911–1918

Entered Miami University in 1911; earned a chemistry BA in 1914 and University of Illinois master’s and doctoral degrees in 1916 and 1918.

1918–1922

Joined Abbott in 1918; became chief chemist in 1920; worked with Roger Adams on Butyn, credited by Abbott to 1922.

1926

Donalee L. Tabern joined Abbott.

1930–1933

Became director of research in 1930 and vice president of research and development in 1933.

1930s

Worked with Tabern on the multiyear research program that developed Pentothal.

1939

A patent naming Volwiler and Tabern as joint inventors was granted April 11.

1942

Abbott joined a wartime penicillin-production consortium while Volwiler held a senior research leadership role.

1946

Became Abbott executive vice president.

1950

Became Abbott president and general manager; also served as American Chemical Society president.

1954–1956

Chaired the American Chemical Society board.

1958

Became Abbott board chairman, received the Priestley Medal, and began service on the National Science Board.

1961–1964

Shifted to an Abbott consulting role in 1961; completed National Science Board service in 1964.

1986

Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame with Donalee L. Tabern.

1992

Died October 3 in Lake Forest, Illinois, aged 99.

FAQs

Question: Did Ernest H. Volwiler invent Pentothal by himself?

Answer: No. Ernest H. Volwiler and Donalee L. Tabern share credit for the development of Pentothal. Both are named on the related U.S. patent and were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Volwiler himself credited Tabern with much of the direct experimental work.

Question: When was Pentothal developed?

Answer: Pentothal was developed during the 1930s. Dates of 1934, 1935, and 1936 have been given for its discovery or introduction, but those milestones are not consistently distinguished. Volwiler and Tabern’s related U.S. patent was granted in 1939, which should not be mistaken for its launch date.

Question: Did Ernest H. Volwiler lead Abbott Laboratories?

Answer: Yes. Ernest H. Volwiler joined Abbott as a research chemist in 1918, served as president and general manager from 1950 to 1958, and became chairman of the board in 1958.

Question: What did Volwiler do during World War II?

Answer: Volwiler was Abbott’s vice president of research and development during the wartime expansion of penicillin and sulfa-drug manufacturing. Abbott participated in a government-requested penicillin-production consortium; this was an institutional and collaborative production effort, not the individual invention of penicillin by Volwiler.

Interviews

Ernest H. Volwiler’s 1986 Oral History

In this extended 1986 conversation with James J. Bohning, Volwiler looks back on his childhood, chemistry training, and decision to complete his doctorate. He describes joining Abbott, working with Donalee Tabern, and overseeing pharmaceutical research and production before becoming company president. It is a firsthand account of his choices and working relationships, told many decades after some of the events.

View the oral history and transcript

Further Reading

• D. Stanley Tarbell and Ann T. Tarbell, “Ernest H. Volwiler and His Career” (1995) — a scholarly biographical article.

Sources

• Science History Institute: Oral history interview with Ernest H. Volwiler
• National Inventors Hall of Fame: Ernest H. Volwiler
• National Inventors Hall of Fame: Donalee L. Tabern
• Harvard Business School: Ernest H. Volwiler, Great American Business Leaders
• Abbott Laboratories: Our Heritage
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Drug Therapeutics & Regulation in the U.S.
• American Chemical Society: Priestley Medal Recipients
• National Science Board / NSF: Former Board Members
• American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy: Volwiler Research Achievement Award
• Chemical & Engineering News: Former ACS President Ernest Volwiler Dead at 99
• U.S. Patent: Thiobarbituric Acid Derivatives, No. 2,153,729