Max Tishler; Chemist Who Led Penicillin Production Process

Max Tishler, 82, a chemist who led the team that developed the production process for penicillin in time to help thousands of wounded Allied servicemen in World War II. Tishler was a former president of Merck Sharp Dohme Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J., where he led the development of drugs for arthritis, heart disease, hypertension, infectious diseases and mental depression. He is listed as the inventor on about 100 U.S. patents and published more than 100 scholarly papers during his 33 years with Merck and 19 years on the faculty of Weslyan University in Middletown, Conn. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan presented Tishler with a National Medal of Science, hailing him as a “giant on the chemical scene these past 50 years.” On Saturday, from complications of emphysema, at Middlesex Memorial Hospital in Middletown.