[wadey]

In 1936, Wallace Carothers married Helen Sweetman, a fellow employee at DuPont. They had a daughter, but tragically Wallace Carothers committed suicide before the birth of this first child. It was likely that Wallace Carothers was a severe manic-depressive, and the untimely death of his sister in 1937 added to his depression.

A fellow Dupont researcher, Julian Hill, had once observed Carothers carrying what turned out to be a ration of the poison cyanide. Hill remarked that Carothers could list all the famous chemists who had committed suicide. In April of 1937, Wallace Hume Carothers consumed that ration of poison himself and added his own name to that list.