Teague, Claude Edward, Jr., Ph.D.
(RJR R&D Admin. Director 1987) Assistant Director of Research at RJR in 1973 and Director of R&D Administration in 1987.(Source: RJR Who's Who NMLRP) Teague was Director of Research & DevelopmentBiographical Information:
Chemist Claude Teague became an R. J. Reynolds scientist in the early 1950s and began writing memorandums to his colleagues on a number of crucial subjects. When internal industry documents began to be made public, several of Teague’s memos became key parts of allegations that the industry was long aware of the health risks of smoking.
Claude Edward Teague, Jr., was born in Sanford, North Carolina, in September of 1924, the son of Claude Edward Teague, Sr. and the former Mary Spaugh. His father, though a lawyer by training, worked as the business manager of the University of North Carolina for many years and one of the residence halls on campus is named for him.
Teague had just turned sixteen when he enrolled at the University of North Carolina in 1940 and began work on a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. In August of 1943, he interrupted his studies to enlist in the U. S. Army and saw combat duty in Europe. Teague would later report that he had received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, four battle stars, a certificate of merit, and French decoration. He returned to Chapel Hill in the fall of 1946 to resume his education, and over the next four years earned both a bachelor’s of arts and a doctorate in chemistry.
In 1950, he accepted a position as a research chemist for the American Viscose Corporation of Marcus Hill, Pennsylvania. Sixteen months later, in December of 1951, Teague returned to North Carolina and joined the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as a research chemist. One of his first assignments was to review and write a summary of the scientific research that had been conducted on smoking and lung cancer. Teague did so in a twenty-nine page report entitled "Survey of Cancer Research with Emphasis upon Possible Carcinogens from Tobacco" that he completed in early 1953.
Teague’s report (http://tobaccodocuments.org/mn_ex/EXHIB_bn504184895-4923.html?pattern=%22claude+e+teague%22#images) included such statements as, "There seems to be a growing suspicion, or even acceptance, among medical men and cancer researchers that the parallel increase in cigarette consumption and incidence of cancer of the respiratory system is more than coincidence." The document would later be used in a number of lawsuits as evidence of the industry’s longstanding awareness of the health risks of smoking.
Later that year, Teague’s research on filters led him to make another assertion that would eventually attract considerable attention. Teague noted in the course of his research that changing the pH levels in filters caused them to change color when smoked. He reported that since "the cigarette smoking public attaches great significance to visual examination of the filter material in filter tip cigarettes after smoking the cigarettes." Because the public incorrectly took the change of color as proof that the filter was effective, Teague concluded that "the advertising and sales advantages are obvious."
Claude Teague remained in the position of research chemist for nearly a decade and would later report that his primary duties during these years included, "Synthesis of tobacco flavors; operation of chemical pilot plant and Avoca processing plants." Then in May of 1960, he was given the new title of manager of chemical research. He would later state that the new title was a promotion in pay and status, but that it meant less time doing research and more time doing paperwork. In 1968, he began taking strategic planning courses at the University of North Carolina’s business school and in January of 1970, he received another promotion and became the company’s assistant director of research.
His new role and his recent studies prompted Teague to write extensively about the future of the tobacco industry. In a 1972 document entitled "RJR Confidential Research Planning Memorandum on the Nature of the Tobacco Business and the Crucial Role of Nicotine Therein," he wrote that "the tobacco industry may be thought of as being a highly ritualized, and stylized segment of the pharmaceutical industry. Tobacco products uniquely contain and deliver nicotine, a potent drug with a variety of physiological effects." Accordingly, a new approach might be necessary: "It should then be possible, using modifications of techniques developed by the pharmaceutical and other industries, to deliver that nicotine to the user in efficient, effective, attractive dosage form, accompanied by no ‘tar,’ gas phase, or other allegedly harmful substances."
Teague continued to develop his thoughts over the next few years in a series of memorandums about the importance of the youth market. In a 1973 document, Teague wrote that, "The fragile, developing self-image of the young person needs all of the support and enhancement it can get." He went further in a 1976 memo, declaring that the "14-to-18 year old group is an increasing segment of the smoking population . . . R.J.R. must soon establish a successful new brand in this market."
In December of 1975, he joined RJR Industries as a development manager and planning manager, a change that he described as a lateral move. He then earned promotions to manager of corporate research in 1977 and then to director of corporate research in 1978. The following year saw Teague return to RJR Tobacco as assistant to the vice-president of research and development. In February of 1981, he earned another promotion to director of research and development, a position he held until his retirement in 1987.
At the time of his retirement, Teague was an obscure R. J. Reynolds scientist but that changed in 1995 when his 1972 document about the crucial role of nicotine was leaked to the New York Times. When Teague’s subsequent comments about the youth smoking market came to light, it gave considerable fodder to critics of the industry. R. J. Reynolds responded to the media coverage with a two-page document that maintained that the apparently damning statements had been "cherrypicked" by "tobacco industry critics" who had "ignor[ed] the context in which Dr. Teague wrote them and presenting them in less than an objective manner" (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rlg60d00). Teague himself testified in a number of trials and made similar contentions. Yet the damage done by these documents remained considerable.
Now in his mid-80s, Claude Teague continues to live in retirement in his native state.
Sources:
Allan M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America (New York: Basic Books, 2007).
Philip J. Hilts, "U. S. Convenes Grand Jury to Look at Tobacco Industry," New York Times, July 26, 1995, A1.
Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes: America’s Hundred-Year Cigarette War and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris (New York: Vintage Books, 1996).
Claude Edward Teague, Jr., internal memos on several topics, on Tobacco Documents Online.
Claude Edward Teague, Jr., internal resume, (http://tobaccodocuments.org/mn_ex/EXHIB_PLEX1097.html).
Claude Edward Teague, Jr., testimony in several court cases, on Tobacco Documents Online.
For More Biographical Information:
American Men & Women of Science, various editions.
Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, various editions.