Researching Frank Rose

Francis Leslie Rose (always known as Frank Rose) was born in Lincoln on 27 June 1909, the second son of Frederick Will Rose, a clerk to a firm of solicitors in Lincoln, and Elisabeth Ann (née Watts). Coming from a family with many church choristers, he taught himself to play the piano, and soon became “accompanist in chief”. He joined the choir of St Martin's Church, Lincoln at age 6, and also taught himself to play the organ. Rose was later to be appointed organist and choirmaster at Ruskington before going up to university.

Rose attended St Faith’s Primary School and Christ’s Hospital Continuation School before gaining a scholarship at age 9 to Lincoln City School. He was much influenced by the senor chemistry master there. At age 16 he was interviewed by Professor Frederic Kipping, FRS at Nottingham, and offered a place in two years’ time. He gained a first class degree, largely thanks to the quality of Kipping’s teaching.

Rose stayed on at Nottingham for his PhD, during which time he attracted the attention of the Dyestuffs Division of ICI. They wanted new types of intermediate for direct azo dyes, a problem which Rose solved in 1932 with a method suitable for large scale manufacture. This success led to his being recruited that year by ICI. Four years later the management decided that they would enter the pharmaceuticals field, and Rose was to be part of the group. “From that time until his death 52 years later Rose was entirely consumed by his love for the biological activity of chemicals.”

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1957 when his candidacy citation read:

Distinguished for his researches in organic chemistry with particular reference to chemotherapy. As leader of the
Medicinal Chemicals Section of Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. (Dyestuffs Division) he, with his colleague, the late
Dr. F.H.S. Curd, was responsible for the brilliant series of researches culminating in the discovery of the antimalarial
drug paludrine, His contributions throughout have been marked by skill in experimentation and by the originality of his
concepts of the relation between chemical structure and pharmacological action, concepts which have paved the way
for his numerous successes in the field of chemotherapy, e.g. synthesis of paludrine, and of the trypanocide antrycide.

He won their Leverhulme Prize in 1975, and was made CBE in 1978. He was made an honorary DSc of Loughborough University in 1982.

Born in Lambeth, Rose was educated at the George Street British School. He became an engineer, and worked in the trade until 1899, when he became a journalist. He was an early member of the Labour Party, and wrote The Coming Force, a history of the party.

At the 1906 UK general election, Rose stood unsuccessfully in Stockton, and then at the January 1910 UK general election he was unsuccessful in Crewe. He was finally elected in Aberdeen North at the 1918 UK general election, and held the seat until his death, in 1928. He was known for frequently defying the Labour whip, and so was sometimes considered to be an independent labour MP, despite his membership of the party.

Rose was a Meridian, Mississippi native. He earned a A.B. degree at Transylvania College, now Transylvania University, and a B.D. from Lexington Theological Seminary. Rose then attended the University of London for graduate school. In 1945, Transylvania College hired him as professor of philosophy, and in 1951, Rose became president of that institution. He was the youngest college president in the country. The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce elected Rose in 1955 as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Men in America." Rose was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa at the University of Kentucky in 1955.

In 1958, Frank Rose became president of the University of Alabama. He was a 1959 delegate to the Atlantic Congress of NATO for the United States Committee. Rose was elected to the South's Hall of Fame for the Living in 1960, and earned the 1966 Distinguished Service Key from Omicron Delta Kappa, for which he was national president. Rose served as Chairman of the Board of Visitors in 1968 for the United States Military Academy at West Point. He further served as Chairman of the Educational Advisory Committee of the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1968. On August 25, 1969, the Alabama state legislature inducted Frank Rose into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Dr. Rose's memberships included the former presidency of the Southern University Conference, chairman of the American University Field Staff Program, executive committee member of the Southern Regional Education Board, and regional chairmanship of the March of Dimes. Rose served on the National Citizen's Committee on Public Television, and advised the US Army as a member of the Advisory Panel for ROTC Affairs.

Rose was honored with Omicron Delta Kappa's Laurel Crowned Circle Award in 1990, the society's highest honor. He was also awarded several honorary degrees from the University of Cincinnati, the University of Alabama, Samford University, Transylvania College, Lynchburg College, Saint Bernard College (renamed Southern Benedictine College), and the University of the Americas in Mexico City. Rose died in 1991 from cancer and pneumonia, aged 70.

Rose was also the president who hired Paul W. "Bear" Bryant, one of the most successful and famous college football coaches in American history.

Rose completed early neurological training at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square, followed by placements in the United States, Paris, and then at St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner and Atkinson Morley Hospital. He subsequently held several consultant posts in London.

He was the secretary-treasurer general of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), the first editor-in-chief of World Neurology, founding editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, and founding chair of the WFN's Research Group on the History of the Neurosciences. He coedited the Headache Quarterly magazine for over 20 years, was editor-in-chief of the journal Neuroepidemiology and the Transactions of the Medical Society of London during the 1980s, and he wrote several books.