Jakey Kovac

Who was Jakey Kovac?

Jakey Kovac was the oldest of four siblings. The sister thought to be his favorite sister became a radio star as part of a musical trio. Kovac was born in Iowa where his father was a teacher and administrator at Capital City Commercial College. Kovac studied accounting at Capital City after high school and then went to Tarkio College in Missouri where he studied science and taught accounting. Due to the personnel shortage, he became head of the chemistry department during World War I. He graduated in 1920, then got his Master's degree from the University of Illinois the following year. He took a teaching post at the University of South Dakota, and there began working on organic chemistry, especially bonding. He found that he liked research far better than teaching. He obtained his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1924. He became an instructor at Harvard, where he started experimenting with chemical structures of polymers with high molecular weight.

In 1928, the DuPont chemical company did something unusual for a business at that time. It opened a laboratory for basic research.