Dean Edward W. Runyon

Runyon

Dean, 1885–1891

Edward Wheelock Runyon was born in Chicago in 1852. At the age of 13, during the Civil War, he served as postmaster under his father’s command. After working as a pharmacy apprentice, he graduated from the New York College of Pharmacy in 1873 with a Graduate of Pharmacy (PhG) degree.

He became a founder of the California College of Pharmacy and was professor of the Theory and Practice of Pharmacy in 1881. He was named dean in 1885.

A strong advocate for practical education, he wrote to the President of the University of California: “We have no Chemical or Pharmaceutical Laboratory. Ours is the only one in the country that is without this important department.” With William Searby, he was one of the four faculty members for the 1884 session of the College.

In 1887 he established a pharmaceutical laboratory in San Francisco, the first on the Pacific Coast. With a partner, he established a successful homeopathic pharmaceuticals manufacturing firm with branches on the West Coast, New York, and Philadelphia. In 1891 he resigned as dean and four years later moved to his firm’s corporate headquarters in New York.

He was a member of the American and California Pharmacists Associations. He was present at the laying of the cornerstone for the College of Pharmacy in 1897. His obituary noted that he was more than 80 years old when he crossed the Andes by airplane. He died in 1938.


Sources: Biennial Reports of the President of the University on behalf of the Regents. Hahnemannian Monthly, volume 73, 1938.