Alice Augusta Ball was born in Seattle in 1892. She graduated from the University of Washington with two degrees: pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and pharmacy in 1914. On June 1, 1915, Ball was the first African American and the first woman to earn a Master of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Hawaii.

Ball’s college adviser, Dr. Harry Hollmann, assigned her a research project involving the effect of chaulmoogra oil on patients with Hansen disease, or more commonly known as leprosy. Her research developed a successful treatment. Unfortunately, Ball soon became ill after the discovery. She worked under immense pressure to produce injectable chaulmoogra oil. She returned to Seattle and died at the young age of 24 on Dec. 31, 1916. According to her obituary, she suffered injuries from inhaling chlorine gas during a class demonstration in Honolulu.

The “Ball Method” continued to be used for the treatment of Hansen disease as early as 1940 or as late as 1999 depending on medical journals. Ball never received recognition from the medical world for her groundbreaking work, the chairman of the University of Hawaii Chemistry Department took the credit instead.

But Hollmann and author Paul Wermager of “They Followed the Trade Winds: African Americans in Hawai’i,” fought to give Ball her due long after her death. In 2000, the university placed a dedication plaque on the campus in her honor, and Feb. 29, 2000, was declared “Alice Ball Day.” In 2007, the UH Board of Regents posthumously presented her with its Medal of Distinction, and an Alice Augusta Ball Scholarship, endowed by Wermager, was established in her honor.

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