Although he didn’t invent Crest toothpaste, he dramatically improved the Crest formula for protecting our teeth so we can smile in all those selfies being taken nowadays. Smitherman’s distinguished career as an inventor at Proctor & Gamble, the parent company of Crest, is impressive by itself. But it’s even more impressive when set within the longer legacy of black inventors, stretching all the way back to slavery days.
Herbert Charles Smitherman Sr. was the first African-American Ph.D. to work for Proctor & Gamble. His son Christopher Smitherman called him “the Jackie Robinson of Proctor & Gamble,” and even though Smitherman passed away more than four years ago, his legacy remains with many of us when we brush our teeth before heading out the door each morning.
Smitherman was born on March 23, 1937, the only child of a minister and his wife. He grew up in Birmingham, Ala., just down the street from the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth Sr., long before the latter co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and marched against Jim Crow. Like Rev. Shuttlesworth, Rev. Smitherman was an activist as well as a minister. His church was burned twice in response to his involvement in voter registration activities in Birmingham.
Smitherman graduated from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and earned his Ph.D. at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1966, just a year after the Voting Rights Act was passed, Smitherman became “the first African American hired by Procter and Gamble with a Ph.D in physical organic chemistry,” his obituary states. “Some of the many patents he developed for P&G [were] featured in the ‘America I AM: The African American Imprint’ exhibit at Cincinnati Museum Center,” which later went to the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture in Charlotte, N.C. The products he helped create and develop included Crest toothpaste, Safeguard soap, Bounce fabric softeners, Biz, Folgers Coffee, Crush soda flavors, among others.
Below are two patents for laundry soap:
Patent No. 5,015,467: Combined anticalculus and antiplaque compositions: “Tartrate monosuccinate and tartrate disuccinate compounds of the formulae … are used in combination with various polymers to provide anticalculus and antiplaque effects on teeth. Oral care compositions such as dentifrices, mouthwashes, and the like, are provided. Use of the tartate-succinates and polymers in combination with other oral car ingredients such as fluoride, pyrophosphate and antibacterials is also described.”
This patent was part of the development of many of our everyday brush and rinse routines and has been cited by 31 other patents, according to the database! Crest toothpaste may have been initially developed in the 1950s, as the Crest website makes clear, and that was before Smitherman joined P&G. But, during his time at the company, he was a valuable member of the development team, and in assigning his patent to the company (standard industry practice), Smitherman was fortifying the Crest product line for millions of consumers.
Patent No. 3,755,429: Process for the preparation of sulfonated detergent composition. “A process for preparing a water-soluble sulfonated reaction product having excellent detergent properties which uses alpha-olefins as the starting reactant.”
Smitherman was a chemical whiz, from detergents to oral care, and these were just the patents for which he was credited as the inventor. Remember, it’s all about “collaborative creativity,” as Isaacson writes.
In addition to his position as a chemist at P&G, Dr. Smitherman spent his career there recruiting and retaining African American professionals. Many of the African Americans at P&G in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were recruited and retained by him. “My father leaves a legacy of diversity at P&G,’’ said his son, Dr. Herbert Smitherman Jr., Ph.D and resident of Detroit. “There were a lot of challenges facing African Americans in corporate industry at the time. He tried to build bridges and open opportunities for everyone in the industry, including African Americans.’’
After retiring from Procter and Gamble after 29 years there, Dr. Smitherman served as vice president of academic affairs for Wilberforce University. He then started a high school called Western Hills Design Technology to assist African American students in performing well in math and science. He later joined the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education as an assistant to Superintendent Mary Ronan.
Imagine all the creations Smitherman touched as a team member, leader and role model at P&G. He also was part of a long line of black inventors who were little known in the United States, and part of a tradition of invention in his adopted state of Ohio.
***Information courtesy of The Root.com and The Cincinnati Herald***