Helen Murray Free passed away (complications of a stroke) recently.  Someone we should remember- even if her invention has been passed by time.

But , back when she created it, it was a major improvement for those suffering from diabetes.  Sure, now, we have methods to connect our cell phones to get instantaneous readings, but that is a new development.  Back in the mid-1950’s such technology would have been the realm of science fiction, at best.

(Please note that next generations of Ms. Free’s device are still sold today.  As demonstrated by the two pictures below.)

Now, for the rest of the story.

Back when World War II began, Helen Murray had every intention to become an English and Latin teacher.  But, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her housemother (at the College of Wooster, Ohio) admonished Helen that it was time to “step up and do science”.   So, Helen graduated with a degree in chemistry.

From there, she was hired by Miles Laboratories (Elkhart, IN), as a quality control chemist.  (At the time, folks knew Miles Laboratories as the home of Alka Seltzer.  [One of the most famous set of advertising involved Alka Seltzer.])

She soon joined the biochemistry lab of Alfred Free (and married her boss)!   Within a decade she developed a test that allowed one to discern the levels of glucose in one’s urine.  These color coded strips  meant that folks could test for their glucose levels, without being subjected to time-consuming and expensive laboratory tests.  (Murray Free eventually extended the functionality to test for proteins and other substances in one’s urine- tests vital to monitor patients with kidney and liver diseases.)

More importantly, Murray Free advocated for women to become involved in Science.  (“If you can give a little boy a chemistry set, why can’t you give a little girl that chemistry set”. That’s exactly what she said when inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011.)

By the 1970s, Miles Laboratories was subsumed by Bayer AG of Germany.   And, Murray Free continued working for them- and advocated for women to find themselves careers in STEM.  She served as President of the American Chemical Society in 1993, one of the world’s largest scientific societies with more than 155,000 members.

Besides the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Murray Free is in the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame and was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by Barack Obama in 2009.

We need more like Helen.

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