Dr. Lennox E. Iton
Chemist - Materials Scientist

Personal Bio – Family and Interests 

      I am a widower with two sons; my wife was killed in an automobile accident with a drunk driver in 1990.  My sons, Blair and Kyle, were aged 3 and 7 years old at the time, so I often characterize myself as a “single mother”.  My older son is now a senior at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, studying mechanical engineering and computer science.  My younger son is a high school junior.  I have a keen interest in current affairs and foreign policy, and in the discourse between science and religion.  I am also interested in peace and justice issues, and I am very active in volunteer mission work.  I was a founding member of one of the Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Chicago, and I have worked on several Habitat projects both in the city and more recently in Du Page County where I reside.  I work regularly at an overnight shelter for the homeless in Du Page County, and I have worked in the Rebuilding Together program in poor neighborhoods in Chicago.  I have also made two work trips to Central America, working in rural villages in Honduras.  Of the various tasks that I did there, I am most proud of my latrine building, though my handiwork is now buried underground.  My volunteer mission work is usually done in connection with the church in which I am an active member.  Perhaps working in underdeveloped countries will be my calling at the end of my scientific career.  I have a love of a wide variety of forms of music, from classical to calypso; this even includes some of the hip-hop music that my sons enjoy.  I learned to play the violin as a youth, and later converted to playing rock music on the violin.  This has given me very many hours of pleasure, particularly before I had a family.  I play much less now, but I recently bought an electric violin to experiment with some new sounds.  Although my own playing days did not go beyond my teens, I am a keen fan of sports, if not of Chicago’s sports teams.  My favorite sports as a youth were cricket, soccer (football), and track and field, not the top sports in this country; but I quickly became enamored of ice hockey while living in Montreal, and of baseball and football when I moved to the U.S.A.  Unfortunately, I am an armchair fan only