OK, folks over 40: Remember the 1970s-era Rolaids advertising campaign? You know, the one that goes, “How do you spell relief? R-O-L-A-I-D-S.”
 
Well, when it comes to the inventors of the world-famous antacid, there are two additional ways to spell it:  P-A-U-L and R-O-U-T-H. William D. “Shorty” Paul, MD (1900-1977), and Joseph Routh, PhD (1910-2001), are credited with creating the formula for buffered aspirin and antacid during the 1940s. Both were University of Iowa faculty members whose collaboration resulted in two remedies found in many homes and workplaces today, Bufferin and Rolaids.
 
Paul was a professor of rehabilitation in the UI College of Medicine. As the Hawkeyes’ team physician from 1939 until his retirement in 1971, he was interested in finding ways to provide immediate relief to injured players. In 1939, a colleague—Kate Daum, head of the Department of Nutrition—complained of a headache but declined an offer of aspirin, saying it would upset her stomach. To aid digestion, “Shorty” added a buffer developed by John Frantz at the University of Maryland to the aspirin. Result for Dr. Daum: headache gone, no upset stomach.
 
Creating large quantities of the product proved troublesome, however, because of its short shelf life. So Paul contacted Routh, who studied the buffer’s properties and its interactions with aspirin. Once they concocted a successful formula, the two shared their findings at a meeting of the Institute for the Study of Analgesic and Sedative Drugs in the late 1940s. They assigned rights to Bristol-Myers, the pharmaceutical giant, which took a strong interest in the new product, calling it “Bufferin.” A stomach antacid version of the product, Rolaids, was introduced several years later.
 
According to a brief 1988 UI Research Foundation history of the products’ creation, the inventors never applied for a patent. Nor did they receive any royalties, since the University did not have a patent policy or committee at the time.
 
Old Gold has appreciated this contribution to the betterment of humanity on many occasions. Thank you, good doctors, thank you.

—David McCartney, University Archivist

William D. “Shorty” Paul, 1951 [F.W. Kent Collection of Photographs (RG 30.01.01), Faculty series, William D. Paul folder, University Archives, Department of Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries].

Joseph I. Routh, 1954 [F.W. Kent Collection of Photographs (RG 30.01.01), Faculty series, William D. Paul folder, University Archives, Department of Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries].

Bufferin advertisement, 1955 From website http://potrzebie.blogspot.com, May 1, 2008, entry.
Bufferin advertisement, 1951

Rolaids advertisement, early 1960scourtesy of CapricornOneVintage, Flickr.com