Arthur S. Barclay Collection

Arthur Stewart Barclay (August 5, 1932-November 6, 2003) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised Tulsa, Oklahoma by his parents who taught at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Barclay would earn his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tulsa in 1954, his master’s degree in 1958 and his doctorate in botany in 1959 at Harvard University. In 1960, Dr. Barclay had been hired by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a field collector for the department’s New Crops Research Branch and the National Cancer Institute. In 1962, Dr. Barclay collected bark samples from Taxus Brevifolia, the Pacific Yew tree, near Mount St. Helens in Washington.

Two years later, Dr. Monroe Elliot Wall discovered through Dr. Barclay’s samples of the yew’s stem bark that it proved positive for cytotoxicity. Dr. Wall asked for more samples from the USDA, who sent Dr. Barclay back to the area in the September of 1964 and sent thirty pounds of samples back to Dr. Wall. Dr. Wall, along with Dr. Mansukh Wani, would succeed in isolating and extracting the compound in 1965 and designated it “K172.” K172 was later renamed Taxol in 1967 by the American Chemical Society and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use against ovarian cancer.

In 1972, Dr. Barclay would transfer to the Medical Plant Resources Lab before transferring again in 1978 to the Economic Botany Lab. Unfortunately, Dr. Barclay was forced to retire in 1980 due to central pontine myelinolysis. Dr. Barclay was able to receive treatment at John Hopkins University and was successfully rehabilitated from the disease. In 1999, Dr. Barclay moved with his wife to Orlando, Florida. On November 6, 2003, Dr. Barclay passed away at the age of 71 following a heart attack.