[RASMB] Ken van Holde

[De La Cruz, Enrique]

All,

These messages have made me feel considerably better, given our loss, and thought I would briefly share my memory as well.

I was not formally trained by Ken, though I learned a great deal from him and his writings (papers and textbooks).  I was exposed to Physical Biochemistry as an undergraduate at Rutgers-Newark (the white cover) and still turn to it, though it is the purple, expanded one I prefer these days.  As a first-year graduate student, I invited Ken to give our annual student invited lecture.  This was 1994, so the early days of email, but I maintained a sporadic but constant email correspondence with Ken since then.  He was such a mentor – genuinely concerned for my well-being, success and happiness as a scientist.  He would write to just check in and he helped me navigate through challenging times, for sure.  As PI, I have had the privilege of visiting U. Oregon in Eugene more than once.  On all occasions, I requested to my host to let Ken know I would be in town… and he came down every time (!) for seminar and dinner.  It was a true highlight for me.  I visited OSU just a few months ago, and though I requested to see Ken, he was unavailable.  I managed to communicate a few words about Ken and that entire department before my seminar that I hope fueled the younger students in the audience.

We have been fortunate to have him.  :-)

Enrique
________________________________________
Enrique M. De La Cruz
Yale University
Professor of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry
Head of Branford College
[cid:image001.png at 01D36DE7.28E6BE80]

From: RASMB <rasmb-bounces at list.rasmb.org> on behalf of Borries Demeler <demeler at gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 3:12 PM
To: RASMB List <rasmb at list.rasmb.org>
Subject: [RASMB] Ken van Holde


Dear Colleagues,
I am saddened to let you know that my mentor Ken van Holde passed early
Saturday morning, surrounded by his children, in Corvallis, Oregon.

Ken was a remarkable scientist, mentor, role model, and full of humanity.
I had the privilege to join his lab in the late 80'ties when I started my
PhD at Oregon State University in Corvallis. He was well known from his
biophysical work using analytical ultracentrifugation, studying hemocyanin
and the structure and function of chromatin. He also contributed a large
body of research to AUC methodology and solution biophysics, including
several textbooks.

His career in academia started at the University of Wisconsin in Madison
with an undergraduate degree, and later a PhD. If I recall correctly,
it was there that he first encountered an analytical ultracentrifuge.
He continued as assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin in
Milwaukee, and in 1957 he moved to the University of Illinois where
he advanced to Professor. In 1967 he moved to Oregon, to the Dept.
of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

He was an internationally recognized scholar, having received multiple
important awards, including the Monie A. Ferst Award, he was appointed
to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and he also held the title of American Cancer Society Research
Professor. Ken was further recognized by the Guggenheim foundation, and
received awards from NSF, EMBO, and the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique. He traveled frequently and spent considerable time abroad,
primarily in France and Germany, to conduct research with scientists
from many different fields.

When I was in Oregon, every summer he packed up a station wagon and drove
across the country to teach the physiology course at the Marine Biological
Laboratory in Woods Hole, where he also interacted with David Yphantis,
who passed earlier this year.

At Oregon State University, Ken was named an OSU Distinguished Professor
in 1988, and in 1993 he retired as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus.
His career didn't end with his retirement, he still wrote several books
and continued to serve as associate editor of JBC. I'm sure I am leaving
out a lot, but if you have fond memories of Ken, please share them with us.

Regards, -Borries

P.S. I received this from a friend of mine at OSU:

Ken recently produced a book of his poetry and the last poem in the
collection, penned in 2014 is entitled “An Old Man”. It reads:

/Once,/

/When I was young and frantic/

/I saw an old man sitting/

/alone in a garden/

/I thought, how sad/

/that we should come to this./

//

/Now I am old./

/The frenzy is gone./

/I have learned the beauty/

/of a fading afternoon;/

/the mystery of night./

//

/I spend hours/

/sitting/

/watching/

/waiting./
_______________________________________________
RASMB mailing list
RASMB at list.rasmb.org<mailto:RASMB at list.rasmb.org>
https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flist.rasmb.org%2Flistinfo.cgi%2Frasmb-rasmb.org&data=02%7C01%7Cenrique.delacruz%40yale.edu%7Cdc6af837c7b1416501fb08d7661a5b5c%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C1%7C637090135701318889&sdata=ENWxjUVrvC6RWWxqx%2FM6ZMezoc8LtZ4OVf%2BDvjKWkcY%3D&reserved=0

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.rasmb.org/pipermail/rasmb-rasmb.org/attachments/20191111/d86ac499/attachment-0002.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3136 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://list.rasmb.org/pipermail/rasmb-rasmb.org/attachments/20191111/d86ac499/attachment-0002.png>