Idahoan Who Helped Develop Teflon Dies

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — A former University of Idaho professor who oversaw the DuPont team that developed Teflon in the late 1930s died on his 103rd birthday. Shorts Funeral Chapel in Moscow says Dr. Malcolm Renfrew died Saturday at his residence at the Moscow Good Samaritan Village.

The Moscow-Pullman Daily News  reports Renfrew was born in Spokane, Wash. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from the University of Idaho in the early 1930s and his doctorate at the University of Minnesota before joining DuPont in New Jersey.

He returned to Idaho as head of the Department of Physical Sciences in 1959 and taught for 17 years, during which time he developed doctoral programs in chemistry and physics. The physical sciences building at UI was named Renfrew Hall in 1985.