Darkis, Frederick Randolph, Ph.D.
(Director of Research at Liggett & Myers) F. R. Darkis was employed by Liggett & Myers, Inc. and served as M.D. Director of Research from 1954 to 1959 and served on the Board of Directors (Durham, N.C.) from 1957 to 1964. He served as Vice President from 1960 to 1962 and served as Vice President (Director of Research) from 1963 to 1964. (Source: L&M, et al Summary of Officers & Directors - LGI/LTC Liability Notebook.) Vice-president for research at Liggett in 1954 (Allman complaint p. 58). Dr. Darkis ordered replication of Wynder's mouse-painting experiments using Liggett brand cigarette, Chesterfield. Chesterfield tests were positive, a fact that Liggett never revealed (Allman complaint, p.58).Biographical Information:
Fredrick Randolph Darkis, Sr., was born on his grandfather's farm in Tuscarora Township, Frederick County, Maryland, on July 22, 1899, the son of Thomas Milton Darkis and the former Maria Celestia Wachter. He was one of nine children in a family that was scarred by tragedy – six of his siblings died in infancy, while one of the two others who reached adulthood died at the age of twenty-four.
After completing high school, Darkis enrolled at the Maryland State College, which was renamed as the University of Maryland while he was a student. On October 29, 1918, he interrupted his studies to enroll in World War I, but the signing of the armistice led to his discharge after only six weeks. Darkis then returned to the University of Maryland and earned his bachelor's of science, his master's of science, and his doctorate, all in Chemistry. His dissertation, completed in 1928, was entitled, "The Effect of Heat and Ultra-violet Light on Unsaturated Compounds and the Theory of Electroisomerism." On October 6 of that same year he married Mildred Lee Morris (1903-1995), a Maryland high school teacher.
Upon receiving his Ph.D., Darkis was hired to teach Chemistry at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Department chairman Paul M. Gross did consulting work for the nearby Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company and Darkis also soon became involved with the firm's research. The extent of his commitment increased over the years, and he eventually became the firm's head of research. That position acquired additional significance in the 1950s after the publication of the historic study by Ernst Wynder, Evarts Graham, and Adele Croninger that linked smoking to lung cancer.
The other major American tobacco manufacturers responded with the 1954 announcement of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, but Liggett & Myers did not participate and Darkis appears to have made a major role in that decision. In 1963, he described the TIRC as being "mostly a publicity organization. They have given millions to various research analysts, but it is very difficult to know what purpose the money has served." Darkis was equally candid about the dangers of smoking, declaring at a 1954 meeting that "if we can eliminate or reduce the carcinogenic agent in smoke we will have made real progress" but acknowledging that there was still "a ways to go." Toward that end, in 1955 Darkis hired chemist James Mold and assigned him to work with scientists from Arthur D. Little, Inc., to recreate the Wynder/Graham/Croninger mouse-skin-painting study. Upon the completion of the study, its findings were sent to the Surgeon General's office and were cited in the landmark 1964 report.
But Darkis was also the subject of controversy, particularly as a result of his involvement in an ad campaign that Liggett & Myers launched in 1953 in response to health concerns. The campaign, entitled "Just What the Doctor Ordered," featured an image of actor Frederic March alongside his statement that he had tried L&M Filters as a result of "Dr. Darkis' letter" and his endorsement of the brand as "a wonderful smoke." Also prominently reproduced in the ad was a letter in which Darkis described the chemical tests that were done on the Liggett filter, declared that the filter was "entirely harmless to health," and asserted that the resulting cigarette was "made and guaranteed by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company." Nowhere in the ad or the letter was it made clear that Dr. Darkis had a Ph.D. in chemistry rather than a medical degree.
While serving as Liggett's Director of Research, Darkis published two articles about smoking and health: "Tobacco Research: New Emphasis Needed?" in the June 15, 1962, issue of Tobacco: The International Weekly, and "Some Problems of the Tobacco Industry – Some Suggestions for Their Solution," in the March 6, 1964, issue of the same publication. But when James Mold asked Darkis for permission to publish the results of his mouse-skin-painting studies, the request was denied. The 1988 Cipollone trial brought more allegations about company research practices during Darkis's tenure. According to Dr. Jeffrey E. Harris, the damaging results of a 1955 study of the amount of tar in four Liggett & Myers brands were not released until 1962 and even then the names of the brands were concealed.
Frederick Darkis was named to the Board of Directors of Liggett & Myers in 1957. He was promoted to Vice President three years later, retaining both positions until his retirement in 1964. After his retirement he continued to serve as a company consultant. He also functioned as an advisor on tobacco terminology for Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. He died in Durham, North Carolina, on September 15, 1982, survived by his wife of fifty-three years and their three children.
Sources:
Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America (New York: Basic Books, 2007).
"Fredric March Says – 'This Is It; L&M Filters Are Just What the Doctor Ordered,'" Life ad, February 22, 1954. http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2021368933.html.
Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris (New York: Vintage Books, 1996).
"Liggett & Myers Conference on March 25, 1954," http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/1262.html.
Morton Mintz, "Cigarette Tests Kept Quiet for 7 Years, Jury Told," Washington Post, February 4, 1988, E4.
Synonyms
Darkis, Frederick R.Darkis, F.R.