DR. CALVIN STEVENS

STEVENS DR. CALVIN 11/3/1923 – 11/26/2014. Dr. Calvin L. Stevens died Wednesday, November 26, 2014 peacefully in his home, at the age of 91, surrounded by his family. Born in 1923 to Irma E. Ambuehl and Arthur Allen Stevens in Edwardsville, Illinois, he went on to attend the University of Illinois and received a Bachelor of Science, followed by a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, and a DuPont Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 1948 and became a full professor of Chemistry there in 1954, followed by Chairman of the Chemistry Department, Vice President for Research, and Interim Provost to the University in succeeding years. He served as a Scientific Officer for the U.S. Embassy in London in 1959. His international reputation as a chemist and researcher was acknowledged through a Guggenheim Fellowship at the Sorbonne in 1955, two Fulbright Fellowships in 1964 and 1971, his multi-year tenure as a Professor Associe at the University of Paris VI, and the award of an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Nancy in 1982. Dr. Stevens invented the drug ketamine, widely used as a general anesthetic but also the subject of current research for its potential to treat resistant depressive disorders. Dr. Stevens, together with Dr. Arthur B. Ash, founded Ash Stevens Inc., a pharmaceutical company located in southeast Michigan, which continues to thrive today. Cal Stevens accomplished as much as a dedicated husband, father and grandfather as he did in his professional career. He is predeceased by his wife, Jennie Stevens, to whom he was deeply devoted. He profoundly impacted the lives of his only daughter, Catherine Stevens McClure, and her husband, Douglas Glendenning McClure, as well as their three boys, Joseph, Thomas, and John McClure, all of whom survive him. He won devoted friends the world over through his loyalty and bon vivant approach to living. Cal's family will receive friends at the Nie Family Funeral Home, Liberty Road Chapel, 3767 W. Liberty Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103 on Sunday, December 7, 2014 from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the memorial service at 10:30 a.m. Please visit his personal webpage at www.niefuneralhomes.com to leave a memory.