September 4, 2000

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Sept. 30, at 11 a.m. at the Storrs Congregational Church for the late Carl W. Moeller Jr., professor emeritus of chemistry.

Moeller, who retired in 1987, died July 20 in Boston of renal failure after a brief illness. He was 76.

"Carl was a wonderful colleague," recalls John Tanaka, a professor of chemistry. "He was a quiet, private person who never said no when asked to do something. And he would always do a great job."

Tanaka adds that Moeller was also much admired by students.

Moeller came to UConn in 1955 as an instructor in the Department of Chemistry and during his career served as deputy department head for the five regional campuses and periodically served as acting department head. He was active in several university and department committees, including committees for regional campus faculty and a group known at that time as the Council on the University's Concern for Human Rights.

He carried out research programs in photochemistry, magnetism and free-radical chemistry and authored some two dozen technical papers.

Born on March 2, 1924, in Carroll, Iowa, he served in Europe during the Second World War as a sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1943-1945. He went on to earn a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and physics from Harvard, graduating cum laude in 1949. He completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Southern California in 1954 and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Tubingen, Germany, from 1954-1955.

He is survived by two sons, Niel Moeller of Seattle and Eric Moeller of Cambridge, Mass.