La Salle University Establishes First Endowed Professorship to Honor Chemist Whose Work on a Fertility Drug Has Enabled Couples Around the World to Have Children

Dr. Michael Prushan, Associate Professor of Chemistry at La Salle, the first holder of the endowed professorship; Frank C. Palopoli, '69; Frank P. Palopoli (in whose honor the professorship was created); John Palopoli, M.D., '70, and Br. Michael McGinniss, F.S.C., President of La Salle. Frank C. Palopoli and John Palopoli created the professorship to honor their father.

La Salle University is honoring Frank P. Palopoli with its first endowed professorship, made possible by the generosity of his two sons, both alumni of the University. Mr. Palopoli led a team at the William S. Merrell Co. that developed the drug Clomid in the mid-1960s. Clomid has been one of the safest and most prescribed fertility drugs in the world for more than 40 years, and has literally enabled hundreds of thousands of couples to have children.

The Frank P. Palopoli Endowed Professorship will provide faculty members in the science departments with professional development opportunities and to foster faculty-student research. Michael Prushan, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Chemistry at La Salle, will be the first faculty member to hold the professorship.

"My brother and I wanted to support the university, and we started to think about what would be an appropriate vehicle, and we wanted to honor our father for the contributions he had made in the field of chemistry, and in particular of Clomid," said his son Frank C. Palopoli, a 1969 La Salle graduate. "He never really received acclaim for what I consider a significant contribution to the welfare of mankind. Thousands and thousands of families are able to have children who might not have. Clomid is so positive in encouraging life that it is certainly worthy of celebration. It would be a good way to honor my father in this manner, to create a professorship at La Salle, to encourage professors and students to the exploration of drug therapies that benefit and promote human life."

His father said, "Quite often I’ll meet people, and we get to talking about family, and they may mention the fact that their child was made possible by Clomid, and then they hug me. It’s very satisfying to hear such stories. There can’t be a better moment for a chemist."

John J. Palopoli, M.D., a 1970 graduate of La Salle who lives in Louisiana, said that his father, who directed research at the William S. Merrell Company in Cincinnati, took a very paternal role with his staff.

"He mentored them, took them under his wing, they loved him," said John J. Palopoli. "It’s fitting that with this professorship faculty will mentor students the way my father took care of people."

He also said that in addition to Clomid, his father did ground-breaking research for cholesterol-lowering drugs and for the cancer-treatment drug Tamoxifen.

About Dr. Prushan, John J. Palopoli said, "He’s great. I wish I had him as a professor when I was at La Salle. Any student would want him for a mentor. He’s precisely what every student needs."

Said Dr. Prushan, "It is particularly satisfying that the primary purpose of the professorship is to aid in mentoring undergraduate students involved in research.  I have seen firsthand that exposing students to research is where learning really takes place. It is when the student becomes a scientist."

"Every one of my research students will tell you, when they are about to run an experiment for the first time, I will ask them to come and get me from my office, and as the student prepares to run the reaction, they will tell you that I’m like a child on Christmas morning, filled with an excitement, an excitement I hope to impart to them," said Prushan.

Prushan takes student researchers to the annual national meeting of the American Chemical Society.  "I want to do what others had done for me," said Prushan, who graduated from La Salle in 1996 and joined the faculty in 2002. "I liked my experience at La Salle, the close-knit relationship with the teachers."

Frank P. Palopoli, the father, learned about the professorship at a family gathering at a restaurant in Cincinnati. La Salle had made a video tribute to him, and his children played it for him. "I was surprised," he said, "and it’s a great honor."

But an even bigger tribute came after the dinner. A woman employee at the restaurant asked what was the family celebrating. She was told about Palopoli and Clomid.   "Don’t leave," she said, and she went back to her office. When she came back, she had tears in her eyes and pictures of her two daughters. "These are my Clomid babies," she said.