Lloyd Noel Ferguson was born February 9th, 1918 in the town of Oakland, California. In the 1870’s both his grandparents moved to California after the Civil War. His parents were born and resided in Oakland California. His father, Noel S Ferguson, worked at an insurance company and his mother worked as a house made for a prominent medical doctor.
Up until the 1930’s Fergusons parents were content With their finances until the great depression of the 30’s hit and Noel Ferguson lost his job. The family had to sell their house and Lloyd Ferguson was sent to live with his grandparents. Luckily they lived within walking distance. When Lloyd was seven years old he almost died from pneumonia and diphtheria. It was the medical doctor for whom his mother worked, who saved his life. This was said to have had a lasting impact on him. Even though Ferguson missed several months of school and had fallen behind, he was still able to skip ahead two grades due to passing grade level tests.
When Ferguson was 12 he was given chemistry set which he spent long hours playing with. Ferguson did very well in chemistry class as he had a greater understanding of the subject than did most of his high school classmates. During those years, he made several products with chemicals from his shed. He made a moth repellant, lemonade mix, stain remover and silver polish. He sold this to many of his neighbors.
He worked several jobs in order to help pay the bills. He worked for the Oakland Tribune and Works Progress Administration where he worked manual labor on docks. He also worked at the Southern Pacific Railway Company. He was able to attend the University of California at Berkeley with the money he saved. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1940. He was the first black American to earn his doctoral degree in Chemistry which he obtained in 1943.
During his years at Berkeley, he worked closely with team member Melvin Calvin on isolating a hemoglobin compound which could interchangeably gain and lose oxygen. This compound was used for use on submarines as a resource of oxygen.
Lloyd later married Charlotte Welch prior to leaving California.He went to work at the North Carolina Dept of Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro. After two years in Greensboro, he accepted a position at Howard University in Washington, D.C. There he wrote two chemistry books. He became chair of the chemistry department and founded the first chemistry doctoral program in a black university or college. He was awarded a fellowship at the Guggenheim. He left Howard for sunny West coast. He joined the chemistry department at California State University where he once again took the chair position of the chemistry department.
Lloyd spent much of his time recruiting minority students to science programs. He founded the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. Lloyd retired from California State University in 1986.
