Pioneering Research Chemist Robert Webb Dies He Got Fragrances from Turpentine

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Byline: Jessie-Lynne Kerr, Times-Union staff writer

Robert L. Webb of Orange Park, a pioneering research chemist who 50 years ago developed a commercially viable process for turning turpentine from pine trees into flavors and fragrances, died Friday at Baptist Medical Center of bladder cancer. He was 75.

Funeral will be at 11 a.m. today in Advent Lutheran Church, 2156 Loch Rane Blvd., with burial in Magnolia Cemetery.

Born in Topeka, Kan., Mr. Webb came to Jacksonville in 1950 after graduating from Washburn University to work as a research chemist at the Glidden Co.

While many people look at fast-growing long-needle slash pine trees that abound in …