Known as "the Father of American Pharmacy" William Procter was graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1837.  He opened a drug store at Ninth and Lombard streets in 1844, where he improved many of the formulae of the pharmacopeia and devised many new preparations. In 1846, he was elected professor of pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy, a department established that year, he being the first to hold that position. In 1849 he edited and published an American edition of Mohr and Redwood's "Practical Pharmacy". In 1852, he became one of the founders of the American Pharmaceutical Association.

For thirty-seven years of Prof. Procter's active career he worked to advance the interests of the science of pharmacy and to popularize the cause of pharmaceutical education.  He edited the "American Journal of Pharmacy" for twenty years. Prof. Procter served on all committees for the decennial revision of the "Pharmacopoeia" for thirty years, and assisted Drs. Wood and Bache in several editions of the "Dispensatory."

Joseph P. Remington (1847-1918) graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (PCP) in 1866. A respected figure in the field of pharmacy, Remington became Professor of Theory and Practice of Pharmacy at PCP in 1874 and Director of the Pharmaceutical Laboratory in 1877. Remington was the first vice-president of the Committee of Revision of the United States Pharmacopeia and supervised the preparation of several class compounds for their annual publication of national standards for medicinal substances and preparations. In 1880, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy conferred an honorary Master in Pharmacy degree to Remington and elected him first president of the Council of the American Pharmaceutical Association, an office he held for six years. He later became the Dean of the College, retaining the position from 1893 until his death in 1918. Remington was also the original author of The Practice of Pharmacy (1886), which, now in its 23rd edition, remains the most widely used reference in American pharmacy education.

Dr. Susan Hayhurst was the first American woman to earn a pharmacy degree in 1883. She was also a graduate of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1857.  In 1876, Hayhurst became the Head of the Pharmacy Department of Women’s Hospital in Philadelphia. She was 63 years old when she received her pharmacy degree and held the job for 33 years. She mentored 65 women pharmacists and was active in the New Century Club, New Century Guild, American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Woman's Suffrage Society of Philadelphia.

Charles LaWall served as Associate Professor of Pharmacy and later replaced Joseph P. Remington as Professor of Pharmacy and Dean in 1918.  He served as dean of the College and was widely known as the author of a revised, comprehensive code of ethics for pharmacists in an effort to expand quality standards in the profession entitled "Pharmaceutical Ethics" printed in the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He served on its national executive committee of the Association in 1920-1921.

LaWall's wife, Millicent Saxon Renshaw, was also a graduate of the College, having received her degree in 1904. She became a pharmacist in her own right and at one time served on the teaching staff of the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia. She also helped to edit the publications United States Pharmacopoeia, the Practice of Pharmacy and the United States Dispensatory.

Upon graduation from PCP in 1907, Lilly joined his family's pharmaceutical firm, Eli Lilly and Company, serving as president of the company from 1932-48.  He was awarded the Remington Honor Medal in 1958.

Ivor Griffith was graduated from the College in 1912 and worked as a pharmacist at Stetson Hospital and later as an assistant to PCP's Associate Professor of Pharmacy, Charles LaWall. In 1916, Griffith joined the teaching staff of Philadelphia College of Pharmacy as an Instructor in Pharmaceutical Arithmetic, gradually advancing to Associate Professor in 1931. Following Dean LaWall's death, Dr. Griffith then became Dean of Pharmacy and by 1941 began serving as both Dean of Pharmacy and College President.  He continued to serve as president until his death in 1961.

Dr. Griffith edited the American Journal of Pharmacy from 1921 to 1941. In 1945, inspired by the need for quinine to fight malaria during WWII, he created the Quinine Pool, a service which collected from Pennsylvania pharmacists all available quinine to allow the government to replace the shortage created by the Japanese occupation of the Dutch West Indies where the cinchona bark was grown. This project was expanded and the American Pharmaceutical Association, of which Dr. Griffin was president, collected a quarter of a million ounces of quinine compounds. Ivor Griffith received a special citation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt for creating the Quinine Pool.  In 1966, Griffith Hall, the main building of the college, was named in his honor.

On March 16, 1879 Robert McNeil (1856–1933), who had recently graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, became proprietor of a drug store in Kensington complete with fixtures, inventory, and a soda fountain used for medicinal purposes. The drug store grew into a family business when, in 1904, Robert McNeil and one of his sons created McNeil Laboratories to market prescription drugs to hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies. They incorporated their business in 1933 as McNeil Laboratories, Inc. 

The junior of the family, Robert L. McNeil Jr., entered the company after graduating from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1938. His addition of a research and development group for new prescription medications would transform the company. In 1955, McNeil Jr. developed the pain-reliever known by the brand name “Tylenol” from his research into the chemical acetaminophen. Tylenol was first sold as a prescription drug before becoming available over-the-counter in 1960, a year after Johnson and Johnson acquired McNeil Laboratories Inc., with Robert remaining company chairman.

In 2006 the McNeil Science and Technology Center was dedicated in the name of Robert L. McNeil Jr., who was present for the opening ceremony. Be sure to visit the exhibition of turn-of-the-century apothecary vessels, medicines, and chemicals located in the lobby of the STC (just across the courtyard from Griffith Hall).