Joseph William Mellor. Dunedin Boy who became the World’s Greatest Authority on Inorganic Chemistry

1957

Mellor Papers

Wellington: A.H & A.W. Reed

Mellor attended evening classes organised by the Dunedin Technical Classes Association, which was established in 1888-89. In 1890, he topped the class in chemistry with 90% and won the prize offered by Professor Black. His teacher was Dr John Don, whom he would eventually replace in 1897. Mellor thought much of his education at the Technical College, writing on 10 March 1898: ‘I cannot too warmly thank yourself and committee for what you have done to me and for what you are doing to others. I started at nothing. As a result of your labours you have developed in me an appetite which is ever growing. It is not exactly the amount of knowledge one gathers in your classes, but it is the love for it which is engendered and developed.’ A.H. Reed wrote this eulogistic pamphlet on Mellor in 1957.