In setting up the Charles A. Stokes Professorship in Chemical Engineering, Charles A. “Andy” Stokes wanted to pay the University of Florida back for the splendid education he got at a low cost, defrayed entirely by waiting on tables, playing in two dance bands and working part time in the State Road Testing Laboratories north of Gainesville. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from UF, Stokes went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a doctor of science degree. He taught at M.I.T. from 1940 to 1945, and then went to the Cabot Corporation as director of research.

Ten years later, Stokes became vice president and technical director for Texas Butadiene and Chemical Corporation In 1960, he went to Cities Service as vice president for technology and planning. Stokes then began his own consulting group in Naples in 1969. He was considered one of the world’s leading experts on methanol manufacturing and marketing. He is also interested in environmental controls, especially air pollution and energy conversion.

Stokes won the Central Jersey Engineering Council’s Engineer of the Year award in 1977 and was named chemical engineering department’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year in 1990. He served as the director of AIChE from 1955 to 1958 and was elected a fellow in 1973. Stokes passed away in 2003.