Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
At one time, penicillin was mass produced here
G. Raymond Rettew worked to save thousands of lives in his lab over the garage of his West Chester home.
What’s in a name? People regularly ask me if I’m related to G. Raymond Rettew. Yes, I say, but it’s a distant relationship.
Typically, the person asking the question has seen the historical marker on Chestnut Street in front of the garage in West Chester.
The marker reads that Rettew (19031973) pioneered mass production of penicillin. Ninety percent the penicillin he was instrumental in producing was used in the World War II effort.
“This is a story that’s never been told,” documentary filmmaker Doug Gahm said. “Rettew’s genius has been lost in the history books.
“He has never had the recognition he deserves.”
Gahm, and his cousin Deb Divine, both relatives of Rettew, will soon release a documentary on the chemist.
Rettew worked to save tens of thousands of lives in his lab over the garage of his home on East Ashbridge Street. He worked for 18 months, often well into the night. Neighbors noted that his light was on late at night.
At the parking garage on Chestnut Street he produced mushroom spawn.
Neighbors noted that his light was on late at night. I recently had a chance to tour that home lab with home owner Christina Wilcomes.
You can almost smell the remnants of banana oil used in the process. I remember, as a first grader at High Street School, smelling the Wyeth Lab. It was smell that has stayed with me for
51 years and is not easily forgotten.
I’ve been told that employees rushed home after work to change into fresh clothes. Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Squibb all made penicillin, but most was produced in West Chester at Wyeth.
“I feel like Mr. Rettew is an unsung hero in West Chester that no one knows about — one of our most important people,” Wilcomes said. “He saved a lot
of lives.
“He had a mind that didn’t stop.” Gahm would agree. “He was one of the most brilliant men who came out of West Chester—one of the most brilliant minds of all time in chemistry, Gahm said. “And he had a fascination for fungus.
“He changed the course of modern medicine.”
There’s plenty of shelf space at the home lab and Wilcomes showed us how it was set up. The former garage is almost all wooden and is now bare except for a few outlets and lamps.
Gahm said that West Chester fueled the “perfect storm” for the mass production of penicillin. The “Mushroom Capitol of the World” is not far away in Kennett Square.
“Only in Chester County could this have happened,” Gahm said. “He wanted to do something for the war effort.”
It was said that Rettew was shy and humble. He escaped into a world of classical music to offset the pressure of work. He was a “gentle giant.”
His memoirs were completed a month prior to his
death. They are called “A Quiet Man from West Chester” and are available at the Chester County Historical Society.
Rettew started out in the mushroom industry and was considered an expert on mushrooms. He even invented a way to freeze and can the fungus.
Rettew tinkered until he found a way to grow penicillin based on his knowledge of growing mushroom spawn, also a fungus.
He is also credited with writing a book known as the “Mushroom Bible.”
The banana oil helped isolate the penicillin from the growing medium. Then it was shaken to extract the penicillin, but the agitation created cloudy mixture which separated slowly or not at all. Rettew then decided to use a Sharples centrifuge, or cream separator, manufactured right in West Chester. That was key.
Many say that the Swarthmore College’s wartime work was valued second only to the creation of the atom bomb and the Manhattan Project.
Rettew also worked for Hires Root Beer in Phoenixville where he introduced the Ph scale to the soda industry, a huge break through.
Gahm hopes that everyone in Chester County, including all students, will see the documentary and know the name of Raymond Rettew.
“We’re hoping to change the history books a little bit,” he said.
Yes, there should be enough room in those history books to make more people aware of the work of a man who saved tens of thousands.
“It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Rettew beat the whole world at the work,” penicillin discoverer Alexander Fleming wrote about his friend he’d met in West Chester. “There are wounded men living today who would have died if he didn’t.”
For further information, or for help with financial support for this documentary, please contact Allison Snavely at the Chester County Historical Society. development@chestercohistorical.org