After graduating from EHS, I attended Bowling Green State University (1957-1960). I was in a pre-medical curriculum with a chemistry major and biology minor. Esther Bendik, Susan Griffiths, Mary Katharine Sampson, and Sylvia Vargo also attended BGSU. My goal was to become involved with "medical research." Toward this end, I attended the University of Chicago (1960-1966) and concurrently pursued the MD and PhD degrees. I received an MD in 1964 and a PhD in biochemistry in 1968. Lyn Pankoff and Sid Tamm attended graduate school at the U of C, and both received the Ph.D. degree (from the Business School and from the Division of Biological Sciences, respectively).
I was "invited" to join the US Air Force as a Captain in the Medical Corps (1966). I did an internship at Wilford Hall USAF Hospital, Lackland Air Force Base, (San Antonio) Texas. John Hasko and Susan Payne Hasko were also at Lackland AFB at this time. Based on the biographies on the EHS web site, it seems that several classmates served in the Air Force. After interning, I was a Flight Surgeon and Research Scientist in Pharmacology and Biochemistry at the School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, also in San Antonio (1967-1969). I met my future wife, who was an Air Evacuation Nurse, during my last week there.
To continue my academic and scientific training, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Fritz Lipmann (Nobel Laureate in Medicine) at the Rockefeller University in New York (1969-1972). Lipmann was arguably one of the three most influential biochemists of the 20th century, and I appreciated the opportunity to receive this training. During my stay I became close friends with people from Africa, Australia, China, Europe, Japan, and South America (this was an international group; there was only one other American in the lab at the time). I traveled abroad in1970 for the first time as a result of these friendships.
I moved to the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA) as Assistant and then Associate Professor of Biochemistry (1972-1979). I set up my own research group and taught medical, undergraduate, and graduate students. Laura and I were married in Iowa City in 1974 (no children). In 1979, I moved to the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center as the Fred G. Brazda Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
During the past decade I was more involved with administrative and educational aspects of biochemistry. I wrote a biochemistry text and a biochemistry review book (1996) aimed at medical and dental students. The preface contains the following expression, "Biochemistry is fun!" Although the text was translated into Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish, it was not a best seller. I was president of the Association of Medical School Departments of Biochemistry in 1997. I stepped down as department head in February (2001), and I remain as a professor where I continue to teach and perform research.
After 25 years in nursing, my wife earned a master's degree in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She established and operated a Louisiana Area Health Education Center Library for a decade. She is happy in her retirement that began one year ago. Her baccalaureate degree was from Western Reserve University (she still does not accept Case Western Reserve as the appropriate name), and she received her first master's degree from Columbia University Teachers College in New York.
My early academic goal was to participate in "biomedical research," and it has been an exciting journey. My personal research has centered on how enzymes work (the mechanism of enzyme action). Most of the enzymes that I investigated since 1972 play a role central nervous system function, and I authored about 100 papers on this subject. These studies were of a fundamental nature and were not performed with the idea of "curing" a specific disease. One of my first independent projects focused on a protein kinase that is now known to play an integral role in both short-term and long-term memory (in sea slugs, rats, mice, and no doubt humans). When I was a graduate student, studying the biochemistry of memory was fanciful. I wish that I had known how protein kinases participate in memory when I wrote grant applications 30 years ago.
As a scientist, I attended meetings and conferences that took me to Amsterdam, Belize City, Berlin, Birmingham (Alabama and England), Budapest, Grand Cayman Island, Grenada, Hamburg (Germany), Hong Kong, Ixtapa (Mexico), Jerusalem, Hamilton (Bermuda), London, Lyon (France), Madrid, Montreal, New Delhi, Paris, Prague, Puerto Varta (Mexico), Rio de Janeiro, San Jose (California and Costa Rica), Singapore, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, Stockholm, Tokyo, Toledo (Spain), Toronto, Vancouver and possibly other cities I cannot recall. I had the opportunity to attend an International Congress of Biochemistry in Australia in 1982, but I chose not to attend. I regretted this decision for the past 15 years. Although I never left the State of Ohio before graduating from EHS, I enjoy traveling.
Avocations include reading, music, cuisine (we all have to eat), and visiting the world's art museums (the Cleveland Institute of Art is one of the best, and it's still free). It was not until my second year in San Antonio (1967) that my tastes in cuisine began to broaden as I learned to appreciate Tex-Mex food. After this first step, appreciation for other types of food came rapidly. My favorite subjects for reading include (auto)biographies of (a) scientists such as Niels Bohr, Francis Crick, Linus Pauling, and James Watson and of (b) political and military leaders such as Omar Bradley, Winston Churchill, Ike, Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, George Patton, FDR, and Harry Truman. I also read all the books that fellow New Orleanian Stephen Ambrose writes.
In New Orleans, we live a quiet life. However, I have marched with Pete Fountain's group on Mardi Gras for the past few years. The name of this distinguished organization is Pete Fountain's Half Fast Marching Club (Don't say it too rapidly). Pete is a well-known Jazz clarinetist with his own club at the New Orleans Hilton Hotel, one of the best shows in town. Three years ago White Sox, a neighborhood cat, adopted us, and the household revolves around him. (See White Sox with Laura)
Yogi Berra - America's foremost philosopher - entitled his recent book "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." I have encountered many forks, and I follow his advice. (See the multi-forked Bob today)
