766 
Obituary. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
October,  1920.  ' 
i^i^i  OBITUARY. 
RICHARD  C.  STOFER. 
In  the  decease  of  Mr.  Richard  C.  Stofer,  for  fourteen  years 
president  of  the  Norwich  Pharmacal  Company,  Norwich,  N.  Y., 
who  died  at  the  Norwich  Memorial  Hospital  on  September  tenth 
after  an  illness  of  several  months,  another  prominent  figure  among 
manufacturing  pharmacists  has  passed  away. 
Mr  Stofer  was  born  September  ii,  1862,  in  Wilmington,  Dela- 
ware, and  was  educated  in  Philadelphia.  In  1882  he  entered  the 
employ  of  Keasbey  &  Mattison  Company,  chemical  manufacturers, 
of  Ambler,  Pennsylvania,  leaving  them  in  1892  to  become  super- 
intendent and  chief  chemist  of  the  Norwich  Pharmacal  Company 
Later  on  he  was  made  Vice-President,  and  in  1906  President;  a  posi- 
tion he  held  with  honor  to  his  company,  and  credit  to  himself,  until 
his  death. 
During  his  twenty-eight  years  on  the  Norwich  staff,  he,  more 
than  any  other  one  man,  was  instrumental  in  the  growth  of  the 
house  from  a  tiny  business  occupying  a  part  of  an  old  wooden  piano 
factory,  into  a  group  of  modern  brick  and  concrete  structures,  con- 
taining many  acres  of  floor  space;  from  a  concern  comparatively 
unknown  to  one  enjoying  an  enviable  position  among  the  half- 
dozen  largest  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States. 
In  local  civic  and  philanthropic  movements,  he  occupied  a  promi- 
nent place,  serving  from  time  to  time  as  president  or  director  of 
many  organizations.  He  was  also  active  in  church  and  Masonic 
circles,  a  member  of  the  American  Chemical  Society  and  of  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
In  the  broader  walks  of  pharmaceutical  and  industrial  life,  he 
was  a  figure  of  national  prominence,  filling,  among  many  other 
offices,  the  dual  role  of  President,  for  two  years,  of  the  American 
Drug  Manufacturers'  Association — an  office  regarded  by  many  as 
the  highest  pharmaceutical  honor  in  the  United  States — and  as 
President  of  Associated  Industries  of  New  York  State,  made  up  of 
two  thousand  or  more  Empire  State  Industries,  representing  a  capi- 
talization of  one  and  one-half  billion  dollars  and  a  pay  roll  of  ninety 
thousand  employees. 
Among  the  lesser  offices  to  which  he  gave  much  of  his  energy  and 
wisdom  during  the  past  few  trying  years,  have  been  Director  and 
Vice-President  of  the  American  Association  of  Pharmaceutical 
