Rue Linn Belford was born in St. Louis, Missouri on December 13, 1931 to the late Rue L. Belford and Fannie Belford (neé Kelley). His family moved numerous times throughout the Depression as his father sought work: Bayview, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; and one year in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, where in that short period of time he met his future wife, Geneva Grosz. Linn obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1953. He carried out undergraduate research with Professor Peter Yankwich on the temperature coefficient of the intermolecular 13C kinetic isotope...