Childhood and education in Pomona, B.S. from Caltech; College of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1935-1997: graduate student years, G.N. Lewis, William Giauque, Wendell Latimer; postwar expansion and reorganization of the college; Director of Research, Atomic Energy Commission, 1949-1951; research: internal rotation in ethane, ring molecules, corresponding states, relativistic effects on molecular properties, spin species conversion in methane, other condensed state research, ion interaction equations for aqueous electrolytes, Pitzer equations for concentrated solutions; discusses teaching and scientific collaborations, committee work, the research process; presidency of Rice University, 1961-1968, Stanford University, Includes an interview with Jean Mosher Pitzer on faculty wives, College of Chemistry, years at Stanford, and includes interviews conducted at Rice University on Rice presidency.

Typescripts of remarks included in the oral history by Marilyn Chapin Massey and John R. Thomas; list of topics not covered in the oral history; a few articles by Pitzer; biographical information and family history.