Dr. Percy L. Julian, scientist, was born in Montgomery, Alabama on April 11, 1899 and died in Waukegan, Illinois on April 19, 1975. The son of a mail clerk, Dr. Julian held many jobs to help pay his expenses at De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and the highest ranking student in his class even though he had previously been discouraged from entering the University.

After earning a Masters Degree in chemistry in 1926, he found the door closed to obtaining a doctorate in America mainly because he was Black. However, with help from the Rockefeller Foundation, Julian received his PhD. from the University of Vienna in 1931.

Dr. Julian spent a number of years as head of the chemistry department at Howard University, and then joined the DePauw faculty. In 1936 he went to work for the Glidden Paint Company in Chicago. Dr. Julian founded his own firm, the Julian Research Institute in Franklin Park with a branch in Mexico City in 1954.

Dr. Julian also found a way to mass produce the drug used to treat glaucoma and perfected the mass production of sex hormones which led the way to birth control pills. Dr. Julian was a trustee at five universities, sat on the board of the National Council of Christians and Jews and was the former president of the Franklin Park Rotary Club. However, he was best known for his experimentation with the soy bean. One discovery was fire fighting foam used for extinguishing oil and gasoline fires. His soy bean experiments led to a low cost protein compound for the coating of paper as well as a synthetically produced cortisone drug used in arthritis treatment. The many honors bestowed upon him include the Distinguished Service Award from Phi Beta Kappa association, Chicagoan of the Year Award, Old Gold Goblet award from De Pauw University. Layman of the Year award from the Church Federation of Greater Chicago and the Annual Silver Plaque award from the National Council of Christians and Jews.