Renfrew graduated from Potlatch High School in 1928 and attended the University of Idaho in nearby Moscow, where he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and wrote for The Argonaut, the student newspaper.
[1][16] After gaining his doctorate, Renfrew worked for DuPont in New Jersey, where he produced a number of patents on polymethyl methacrylate, including one on photopolymerization,[17] material for tooth repair,[18] as well as epoxy resins[19] and the first method of synthesis of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) in a form which was suitable for the commercial production of Teflon.
[21][22][23] After further industrial experience with General Mills Company back in Minneapolis and Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc. in Buffalo, Renfrew returned west in 1959 to his alma mater in Moscow to head the UI Department of Physical Science.
[25] His 100th birthday, October 12, 2010, was declared as "Malcolm M. Renfrew Day" in the State of Idaho by Governor Butch Otter.
[26] Part of the celebration was the rededication of Renfrew Hall, the chemistry building named for him a quarter century earlier.
Opened 61 years ago in 1964 as the Physical Sciences Building ("Phy-Sci"),[27] it was renamed "Renfrew Hall" in October 1985 for his 75th birthday.