Born and raised in Joliet, Illinois, Mary Wirth, ’74, had been enthralled by science even as a child, growing up in the shadow of the space race.
 

"During my childhood, the space race captivated everyone, starting with Sputnik to the moon landing when I was 16,” she said. “Science was esteemed. My father loved science. He watched educational TV with us, and he had quite a good telescope for looking at the moon and planets. I always knew I wanted to be a scientist.”

However, Wirth remembers the obstacles she faced being a young woman wanting to go into science as a career. 

“Science back then was viewed as a career only for boys, so it was not a simple path for me,” she said. “I tell my saga as an inspiration to anyone who is viewed as an outsider. I planned to go to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and I wrote to the head of the chemistry department and asked what courses he recommended for me to take in my senior year. My high school principal forbade me from taking both math four and physics, saying it was ‘inappropriate for a girl.’ I decided to skip my senior year and go to a junior college since I was just a few summer school classes away from a diploma.”

Wirth ultimately found allies at NIU. 

“My junior college freshman chemistry instructor told me he had never given an A to a girl before and never would,” she said. “When I registered at NIU, they balked at letting me into the honors program with the Bs in freshman chemistry. The math department went to bat for me to plead my case to the chemistry department. The department head agreed to meet with me and then allowed me into the honors program. It was fortunate for me because I had wonderful classmates with a thirst for learning and puzzling out this strange subject called chemistry. When I graduated, the department head shook my hand and said he was glad that he had admitted me into the honors program.”
 

Wirth had a successful career in academia and scientific research before her retirement as a professor at Purdue, and when it came time to give back to her alma mater, she had a particular NIU mentor on her mind: Joe Vaughn.

“Dr. Vaughn was one of the good people, one of the very best,” she said. “I had Dr. Vaughn for inorganic chemistry in my senior year. He was a spectacular teacher. He made chemistry so interesting that I don’t think I missed a word of what he said. He melded material I found confusing from earlier courses, and he made sense out of it. I felt like his course was where I had gotten nearly my entire understanding of undergraduate chemistry.”

Wirth had the opportunity to thank Vaughn personally during a visit to NIU in September 2025, when she met with him and his wife, Jean, M.A. ’91, and told him about her establishing the first endowed professorship in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in his honor, as part of a planned gift to NIU.

“Dr. Vaughn had a huge impact on my career success, and more importantly, my love for science,” she said. “He has devoted almost his entire adult life to the NIU chemistry department, and he richly deserves to be the namesake for the first named professorship in the chemistry department.”

Wirth recalled Vaughn giving her the confidence she needed as an undergraduate. 

“Dr. Vaughn used the Socratic method of teaching, where he would frequently ask the class to figure out what the conclusion was going to be,” she said. “It gave me a real-time assessment of how I was doing in the course. Along those lines, I realized that I was doing as well or better than the students who were going to top graduate schools, so for the first time, I thought I ought to also go to graduate school. I sheepishly asked Dr. Vaughn for a letter of recommendation for graduate school at Purdue, which was ranked number one in analytical chemistry, and he enthusiastically agreed. That vote of confidence came at a time when it meant a lot to me.”

Vaughn said he was humbled by the gesture.

“It was wonderful to see Mary again. I was both very flattered and humbled when she told me what she had done,” he said. “The thought of having a professorship established in my name was not on my radar. The professorship is a wonderful acknowledgement of my academic career at NIU.”

He added, “I enjoyed helping the Department of Chemistry evolve from one whose primary purpose was to train elementary and secondary school science and chemistry teachers to a Ph.D.-granting research department. I get a great deal of satisfaction from knowing that I played a role in this transition.”

Professor Victor Ryzhov, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said Wirth is “one of our few formally recognized distinguished department alumni, and having a gift from her is an enormous honor for the department.”

Having one of the few named professorships at NIU will be an enormous boost to the department, Ryzhov said.

“Having a named professorship in the Chemistry and Biochemistry department will be very helpful for attracting, retaining, and recognizing top faculty, providing flexible funding for innovative research and teaching, boosting departmental prestige, and offering enhanced support and opportunities for students,” said Ryzhov. “It will also honor significant donor contributions and the continuing academic legacy for Mary Wirth. Professorships act as powerful recruiting tools for both faculty and students, attract further major gifts, and enable breakthroughs difficult to fund via traditional grants, ultimately elevating the entire university's standing in chemistry and biochemistry.”

In addition to Vaughn, Wirth counts Peter Daum as another impactful NIU educator who gave her confidence as a woman in a male-dominated field.

“Dr. Peter Daum was an assistant professor who taught senior-level analytical chemistry,” she said. “He was also a skilled teacher. I am grateful to Dr. Daum for the encouragement he gave me, and also for the conversations about surviving chemistry as a woman. He said times are changing, and if you persevere and succeed, people will accept you.”

Wirth also shared some personal, fun memories of her time as an undergraduate at NIU: “Ice skating on the lagoon with the chemistry students. Seeing the Aurora Borealis for the first time and thinking we were in a nuclear war. Walking two miles from my apartment to Faraday Hall with a group of chemistry majors when it was way below zero and the buses weren’t running because we knew chemistry classes would never be canceled.”

Wirth has a message for those who face obstacles in their careers and lives.

“There is always someone who will try to stop you,” she said. “My message to anyone else who is demographically different: no one can stop you. And take a good look at the person trying to stop you and realize they are insecure, they are never the best. So do not take what they say to heart. Do not let their negative energy discourage you. I look back and realize I won many major awards in my field, which reminds me that there are more good people than bad.”

When asked what NIU means to her, Wirth said "it means life-changing opportunity.” Asked why she has chosen to remain engaged as an alumnus and a donor, she had one word: gratitude. 

Wirth said she happily gives back to her alma mater to help students, just as she received a boost of confidence back when she needed it.

“It gives you a chance to be one of the good people,” she said.

For more information on being a philanthropic Huskie, click here!