File Photo Julian Heicklen protests outside the University Gates.

Gary Cattell and Julian Heicklen debate the legalization of marijuana yesterday on the Willard Building steps.

File Photo Julian Heicklen protests outside the University Gates.

Self-proclaimed as the “wizard of Whitmore Lab,” Julian Heicklen had a “larger-than-life personality,” according to his daughter Judy Heicklen.

Julian, who died on March 11, was a chemistry professor at Penn State from 1967 to 1992.

Born in 1932 in Rochester, New York, Julian received a degree in chemical engineering from Cornell and a graduate degree from the University of Rochester.

Before teaching at Penn State, Judy said Julian had much experience in protesting.

Julian lived in Los Angeles in the ‘60s, where he worked with the Congress of Racial Equality to integrate housing in California.

When he worked at Penn State, Julian took up teaching Physical Sciences 8, a course for non-science majors no longer taught at the university, according to Judy. She said Julian wanted to make the class “really fun and interesting” to “have people who wanted to go to class.”

To do so, Judy said Julian made political button pins with “Meet me in PHYSCI8” written on them, brought in the gymnastics team dressed as hydrogen and oxygen molecules to demonstrate molecule bonding and had cheerleaders come into class chanting “acid plus base equals salt plus water.”

As the wizard of Whitmore Lab, Julian would wave a cape, and a chemical solution would turn from yellow to blue, Judy said.

Nicholas Winograd, Evan Pugh University professor of chemistry Emeritus, said he recalled Julian advertising a chemistry class in The Daily Collegian as “easy” to get students interested.

When the class eventually became difficult, Winograd said students complained, and Julian responded saying, “Easy grading for me, not for you.”

“His science was very good,” Winograd said. “In his efforts to keep it going, he proposed some really creative things.”

Winograd said Julian’s favorite chemical was diethylhydroxylamine, which “rapidly scavenges” nitrogen oxides and prevents photochemical smog.

While working for the government of Israel after his time at Penn State, Julian was interested in putting up large windmills to combat the country’s smog issue, Winograd said.

“That's the way he thought about these things,” Winograd said. “He thought big about everything.”

Gary Cattell and Julian Heicklen debate the legalization of marijuana yesterday on the Willard Building steps.

Barbara Garrison, Shapiro professor of chemistry Emerita, said she ate lunch with Winograd and Julian for 10 years while Julian was at Penn State. Garrison was department head at the time and said Julian was “very gracious” with helping the department.

Garrison said Julian took up freshman classes and was actively involved in “revamping” the physical chemistry labs.

“He would pick things to advocate [for] that he had a very strong moral sense of what he thought was right, and when I really looked at what was important underneath, I agreed,” Garrison said.

Garrison said Julian was an “excellent scientist” and a “really good person.”

“He was always just kind of having fun with it,” Judy said. “Hopefully, it made some English majors not hate their science.”

Once he retired, Julian continued his “long history of activism” on and off campus — specifically focused on the legalization of marijuana, according to Judy.

Julian would go in front of the Allen Street Gates, take a bullhorn and say, “I’m now lighting the torch of freedom,” while lighting a joint, and according to Judy, he was arrested “dozens” of times for it.

Judy said Julian acted as his own lawyer and was “never actually convicted of a crime.”

In March 1998, the Collegian reported on an instance in court when Julian became angry after the judge showed up 20 minutes late and didn’t introduce himself. Julian then went home.

“The bottom line is, I appeared and they didn't,” Julian said in the article. “The trial is over.”

In September 1999, while Julian was running for county commissioner, the Collegian covered a debate on marijuana legalization between Julian and Gary Cattell, the Willard Preacher.

Cattell, in the end, said Julian “might” get his vote “just because he understands freedom.”

“He was such a strong believer in justice,” Judy said. “He [needed] to stand up for the rights of people who couldn’t necessarily stand up for their own and was willing to put his own personal comfort at risk in order to do that.”

Judy said Julian continued his activism beyond campus, helping organize the Million Marijuana March on Washington, being recognized in High Times Magazine as Freedom Fighter of the Month in May 1998 and winning the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party Achievement Award in 1999 and 2006.

“He left very big shoes to fill, I would say, in terms of that kind of courage to go against the grain and go against the mainstream,” Judy said. “I think of him as very brave in that sense but still a really fun guy.”

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Katelyn Garcia is a news reporter for The Daily Collegian. She is a sophomore majoring in digital and print journalism with minors in Italian and entrepreneurship and innovation.

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