Gershon J. Shugar is the author of The Chemists Ready Reference Handbook, also published by McGraw-Hill, and professor emeritus of engineering technologies at Essex County College, Newark, New Jersey. In 1947, Dr. Shugar founded a chemical manufacturing business that became the largest exclusive pearlescent pigment manufacturing company in the United States. In 1968, he was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at Rutgers University, where he taught until his appointment at Essex County College.