The Father of American Pharmacy. In 1831 at the age of fourteen, William's family moved to Pennsylvania from Baltimore and he entered the drug store of Henry M. Zollickoffer. During the following six years was not only diligent and attentive to his duties in the store, but devoted all his leisure time to the study of chemistry and pharmacy. In 1837 he was graduated from the College of Pharmacy, and opened a drug store at Ninth and Lombard Streets in 1844, where he made improvements to many of the formulae of the pharmacopoeia and in devising new preparations and making original investigations. In 1846 he was elected Professor of Pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy, a department established that year, he being the first to hold that position. In 1849 he published an American edition of Mohr and Redwood's "Practical Pharmacy," with additions of his own. In 1852, he was one of the founders of the American Pharmaceutical Association, and was appointed a member of its first executive committee. In 1853 he was one of a committee to prepare a paper on the standard quality of drugs, together with tests for detecting adulteration, and in 1856 he made a report to the Association on the progress of pharmacy in the United States. In 1862 he was elected President of the Association. He resigned his chair in the college in 1866, and the following year made a tour of Europe, and also attended the meeting of the International Pharmaceutical Congress of Paris. For thirty-seven years of Professor Procter's active career he did more than any other American to advance the interests of the science of pharmacy and to popularize the cause of pharmaceutical education. As a lecturer and an investigator in his chosen field he stood unequaled, and was universally recognized as the leader. He edited the "American Journal of Pharmacy" for twenty years. He served on all committees for the decennial revision of the "Pharmacopoeia" for thirty years, and assisted Drs. George B. Wood and Franklin Bache in several editions of the "Dispensatory." He was corresponding secretary of the College of Pharmacy for twelve years, and from 1867 to 1874 was first vice-president. In 1872, upon the death of Professor Edward Parrish, he consented to fill the chair of pharmacy temporarily. On the evening of Monday, February 9th, Professor Procter returned home apparently in his usual health and spirits after lecturing at the College of Pharmacy, sat talking with his wife until nearly midnight, when he retired and was shortly after found to be dead. William Procter was an honorary member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, British Pharmaceutical Conference, Sociedad de Farmacia National, Argentina, Colegio de Farmaceuticas, Madrid, Societe de Pharmacie de Paris, Austrian Apothecaries Society, Maryland College of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy of the City of New York, and many more.