Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as “the pill,” died at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He was 91. He died of complications of liver and bone cancer, according to his son, Dale.
He arrived in America as World War II engulfed Europe, a 16-year-old Austrian Jewish refugee who, with his mother, lost their last $20 to a swindling New York cabdriver. He wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, asking for assistance, and obtained a college scholarship. It was a little help that made a big difference.
Dr. Djerassi (pronounced jer-AH-see) wrote books, plays and 1,200 scientific articles; taught at universities for five decades; created an artists’ colony in California; and obtained a patent on the first antihistamine. His work on the science of birth control helped engender enormous controversies and social changes, altering sexual and reproductive practices, family economics and the working lives of millions of women around the world.
While never a household name, Dr. Djerassi was often called the father of the pill. But it was something of an exaggeration. He did not invent the commercial birth-control pill, and was only one of many scientists working over decades who pioneered the chemical bases of what would become the pill.
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Dr. Djerassi wrote many books on scientific subjects, including optics, steroids and the pill; a book on the politics of contraception; and several memoirs, including one published this year, “In Retrospect: From the Pill to the Pen.” Starting in the late 1980s, he also wrote novels, including what he called “science-in-fiction,” which focused on the ethics of modern scientific research and the conflicts that scientists face in their quest for knowledge and recognition.
He also wrote a number of plays that were produced in Europe, Asia and America, including Off Broadway productions of “An Immaculate Misconception: Sex in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” “Taboos,” “Three on a Couch” and “Phallacy.” Dr. Djerassi, who also had homes in Vienna and London, received 34 honorary doctorates and a score of professional and government awards, including the National Medal of Science (chemistry), the nation’s highest science honor, presented by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest technology award, presented by President George Bush in 1991.
A previous version of this article misstated the relationship of one of the survivors to Carl Djerassi. Leah Middlebrook is his stepdaughter, not his stepsister.
