MY FRIEND, ERNEST GUENTHER 285 Ernest received his Ph.D. in 1920. He had an opportunity of coming to the United States almost immediately upon graduation to work as a dye chemist in Paterson, New Jersey. But again his sage father intervened, persuading him to acquire some experience locally before leaving the country. Those were depression years in Germany and finding a job was not easy. But fortune smiled once again. Ernest obtained a position as an assistant to Albert Hesse, the famous expert in floral oils who was then also editor of the Chemisches Zentralblatt. Hesse died two years later, whereupon Ernest accepted a position with a soap and cosmetic house in order to gain practical experience. He was so good at it that soon he was asked to establish manufacturing branches of his house in Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia, Finland and elsewhere. In the meantime the depression in Germany turned from bad to worse. Eventually the German mark reached the incredibly low point of exchange at the rate of four trillion, two hundred billion paper marks to one U.S. dollar. By then Ernest decided that he had acquired enough practical ex- perience to seek his fortune elsewhere. Before leaving, he made contacts with some prominent essential oil houses in New York. The selection nar- rowed down to Fritzsche Brothers, Inc., whose offer he accepted. He ar- rived in New York on a foggy afternoon, late in the fall of 1924. He still remembers with vivid emotion the sudden emergence of the New York sky- line, with its thousands upon thousands of glittering lights. He thinks that Parsifal must have felt the same when he first glimpsed Monsalvat, castle of the Holy Grail. It did not take Ernest very long to make good at Fritzsche Brothers. Mr. F. H. Leonhardt, the present Chairman of the Board, quickly recog- nized his extraordinary talents. The following summer, Ernest was asked to carry out an investigation of the production of essential oils in the Grasse region, particularly those ofjasmin and lavender. His findings were received so favorably by his firm that the following year he was asked to include Spain in his itinerary. Eventually, the company acquired a plant in Seillans, and Ernest was made its technical director. From this time on he began to travel all over Europe investigating or supervising the produc- tion of essential oils in France, Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Bulgaria and, in- cidentally, also in North Africa. He spent the winters in the United States working in the laboratory, writing his monographs and lecturing all over the country. These lectures were illustrated by motion pictures anybody who saw them will never forget their vivid, story-telling beauty. The outbreak of the Second World War restricted Ernest's travels to the western hemisphere, but it also gave him an opportunity to help pro- mote the development of new sources of essential oils when the old Euro- pean, African and Asiatic sources became inaccessible.

286 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS About this time Ernest started to work on the revision and compilation of his numerous monographs and articles into book form which he had pub- lished over a period of some fifteen years. He did not seem to realize at first that he set himself a task of truly herculean proportions. When it dawned on him what he tackled, he felt like a swimmer who trying to cross a river finds himself unaccountably in the middle of an ocean. At any rate, for over ten years he worked with a devotion and a persistence which must arouse the boundless admiration and intense gratitude of all those who are now enjoying the fruits of his labors. He sacrificed Sundays and holi- days as well as his vacations to this task. He worked every day until mid- night or even later. He is convinced that he could not have done it had he been married. With this I most certainly disagree. An understanding wife would have been to him a source of helpful comfort and solicitude. Besides, it is too bad that some good girl has been deprived of the op- portunity of getting a husband of Ernest's sterling qualities. However, I do not wish to imply that Ernest should be canonized as a saint. I am not losing sight of his essential realism. This is why I hasten to assure you that Ernest is by no means immune to feminine charm, or that, in turn, he is not eminently attractive to the fair sex. But beyond all this, Ernest loves humanity in general. His is the quality of empathy, the ability to feel with people, to share their problems and pleasures by identifying himself with them. Ernest has a gentle sense of humor which makes him laugh with those he meets, but never at their ex- pense. Above all, Ernest is a sympatico, a man supremely considerate, who never holds a grudge, who does not even hunt or fish because he would not want to hurt another living creature. In spite of the specialization in his chosen field, Ernest's is certainly not a one-track mind. Far from it! He is constitutionally unable to be indif- ferent about anything, be it politics or archeology, languages or history, fine food or feminine pulchritude. Yet he is never dogmatic willing as he is to express his own opinions, he invites and respects those of others. Ernest is a marvelously vital person. It is this vitality which stood him in such good stead on his many journeys to the remotest corners of the world. I only hope that someone will persuade him to write his autobi- ography some day. Judging by the very few examples of his experiences with which I am familiar, such a book would make fascinating reading. Generous to a fault as he is, Ernest delights in acknowledging whole- heartedly the devotion and cooperation of the special staff which was as- sembled to aid him with his monumental work, "The Essential Oils." With this as a premise we, too, owe a debt of gratitude to this small group of dedicated people. And last, but not least, we appreciate and admire the generous understanding with which the management of Fritzsche Brothers treated the project from its inception to its execution. Without such an