George Wiley

Who was George Wiley?

George Alvin Wiley was an American chemist and civil rights leader.

Wiley earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Rhode Island in 1953; received a doctorate in organic chemistry from Cornell University in 1957; fulfilled a six-month ROTC obligation as a first lieutenant in the United States Army at Fort Lee, Virginia; and subsequently accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. Wiley taught for two years at the University of California, Berkeley, whereupon he took a teaching position at Syracuse University in 1960. That same year, he founded the Syracuse chapter of Congress of Racial Equality. He later founded the National Welfare Rights Organization.

He was named on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

In August 1973, Wiley was reported missing and presumed drowned while sailing in Chesapeake Bay. The George Wiley Award in Organic Chemistry at Syracuse is named in his honor.