International Organization for Mycoplasmology

Obituaries

Pediatric Virologist Robert Chanock Dead at 86
Melissa Lee Phillips

August 9, 2010 — Robert M. Chanock, MD, whose discoveries of childhood respiratory viruses led to the development of several important vaccines, died on July 30 from complications of Alzheimer's disease, according to news reports. He was 86 years old.
Beginning in the 1950s, Dr. Chanock and colleagues identified and characterized several viruses that are important causes of respiratory illness, especially in children. His work led to vaccines and treatments against several major respiratory pathogens.
Dr. Chanock spent most of his career at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Chanock's "innumerable contributions to the understanding of viral diseases helped make the world a healthier place for millions of people," current NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said in a statement.
In 1957, Dr. Chanock and colleagues identified respiratory syncytial virus, the most common childhood cause of serious lower respiratory tract disease, which kills at least 200,000 infants each year. The researchers developed an antibody to prevent respiratory syncytial virus illness in high-risk infants and worked on a vaccine that is now in clinical trials.
"You don't find many people who are able to study the cause of a problem, its importance — How many children or adults did it affect? — and then develop a vaccine," Albert Kapikian, MD, a colleague of Dr. Chanock's at NIAID, told the Washington Post. "He was a giant in the field, a legendary figure, because he was able to cover these 3 areas.''
During the next several decades, Dr. Chanock's group discovered and characterized many other important respiratory pathogens, including the 4 parainfluenza viruses, several strains of rhinovirus and coronavirus, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes bacterial pneumonia (Chanock, R.M. Mycoplasma pneumoniae: proposed nomenclature for atypical pneumonia organism (Eaton agent). Science 140:662, 1963. ).
Dr. Chanock helped develop a vaccine against the respiratory pathogen adenovirus and conducted research that led to vaccines for hepatitis A and rotavirus, a common cause of childhood gastroenteritis. His group was also involved in developing the first intranasal spray influenza vaccine. More recently, Dr. Chanock and colleagues began work on vaccines for West Nile virus and dengue fever.
Dr. Chanock's accomplishments are "unparalleled in the history of American virology," Dr. Fauci told the Washington Post.
Dr. Chanock was chief of NIAID's laboratory of infectious diseases from 1968 until 2001. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973. He began his career under the mentorship of Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati, who developed the oral polio vaccine. Among the many awards Dr. Chanock received in virology and pediatrics, in 1995 he was awarded the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal for exemplary research in the field of vaccinology.

One of the founders of Mycoplasmology, Eyvind A. Freundt, passed away May 31, 2009. His obituary can be obtained here.

Dear IOM Members,

Dr. Janet Robertson has notified us that Dr. Maurice C. Shepard died on December 12, 2007. Dr. Shepard published the original description of ureaplasmas and their association with male urethritis in 1954. He was an honorary member of our organization and the IOM held an international symposium on ureaplasmas in his honor in Seattle, Washington in 1985. The announcement below was published in his hometown newspaper. A more complete biographical summary of his life and contribution to mycoplasmology will be written by Janet for the next IOM Newsletter and website.

Ken Waites
IOM Chair

Maurice Shepard 91, of Jacksonville, NC died Dec. 12, 2007, at Pitt Memorial Hospital. He was a retired civil service microbiologist for the U.S. Navy. He was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth Erika Shepard. Survivors include his three daughters, Julia Shepard Friant of Jacksonville, and Jean Shepard and Evelyn Shepard, both of New York City, N.Y.; one sister, Miriam Shepard Peterson of St. Paul, Minn.; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, 930-B Wellness Drive, Greenville, NC 27834.

Robert F. Whitcomb died on December 21, 2007 from brain cancer. His obituary was published in the Washington Post. Below is a picture of him at the last congress in Cambridge.

Left to right: David Taylor-Robinson, Alain Blanchard, Robert Whitcomb.
Submitted by Alain Blanchard.

Robert Franklin Whitcomb, 75, a research entomologist at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center who identified more than 50 new species of leafhoppers and about 60 new species of microorganisms, died of brain cancer Dec. 21 at Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center in Sierra Vista, Ariz. He lived in Sonoita, Ariz. Dr. Whitcomb was known worldwide for his 1972 discovery of the genus Spiroplasma, a group of mollicutes, or small bacteria without cell walls. He worked on these microorganisms for the rest of his career. "The world is essentially a microbial world," he wrote in a 1989 paper. "Although we may pretend to be eukaryotes, we are impostors. Spiroplasma, although discovered a mere 17 years ago, may be the largest genus of any kind on earth and may contain more than a million species." He also was deeply interested in birds, and one of his articles, which applied the ideas of island biogeography to mainland bird populations in the eastern deciduous forest, was considered a landmark study. It led to the current emphasis on the negative effects of forest fragmentation on biota, or all the living organisms of the forest. On the Agriculture Department's Beltsville campus, Dr. Whitcomb was widely credited with the successful re-creation of its grasslands, a unique landscape in the Washington area that contains the progeny of plants seeded in Colonial times or before. More than 234 species live in the uncut meadowland, he told a Washington Post reporter in 1997, and it's managed naturally. Ideally, that would include lightning-set fires. "I called the Prince George's Fire Department and asked what would happen if I set a match. [A fire official] said, 'You can set fire, but I've got to come and put it out,' " Dr. Whitcomb said. "I don't think our director would be too happy if we burned down the surrounding subdivisions, but I'd love to torch the savanna." The savanna is off Poultry Road, near a row of houses just beyond the 7,000-acre government farm. "These people were complaining because of a wasp nest in our trees," Dr. Whitcomb told The Post. "Can you imagine what would happen if we torched the prairie?" Few might expect a natural scientist to be born in New York City, as Dr. Whitcomb was. He graduated from Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., and received a master's degree in entomology in 1958 and a doctorate in plant pathology in 1961, both from the University of Illinois. He did postdoctoral work in entomology at the University of California at Berkeley for five years. He moved to the Washington area in 1966 to work at Beltsville, where he remained for the next 30 years. He was an original member of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology in 1974 and taught one of its methods courses in Bordeaux, France, in 1984. He received the group's highest honor, the Kleineberger-Nobel award, in 1994. He published more than 300 scientific papers and in 1979 was one of four editors of a new series of scientific reference books, "The Mycoplasmas." Dr. Whitcomb, who also had a home near Elkins, W.Va., enjoyed participating in the Christmas Bird Counts in the Washington area from 1970 through 1996. He moved to Arizona the next year and participated in the counts there as well. He ran surveys on several breeding bird routes in West Virginia for more than 30 years, and in 1988, he coordinated the northeastern quarter of the West Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas. In retirement, he became interested in oral history and recorded interviews with members of the World War II generation, some of which were turned into articles in the West Virginia magazine Goldenseal. Dr. Whitcomb also published two books of his poetry, in 1998 and 2007, and was a member of an Arizona poetry group. He played competitive Scrabble for the past 10 years. His marriages to Mary Brown and Miriam Becker Courtney ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife, Judith Whitcomb of Sonoita; four children from his first marriage, Bruce Whitcomb and Julie Whitcomb Yates, both of Baltimore, and Douglas Whitcomb and Stephen Whitcomb, both of Columbia; two stepdaughters, Pam Olejar and Ruth Courtney, both of Fort Lauderdale; and five grandchildren.

We have learned from Uus van den Wall Bake, her niece, that retired member Mrs. Anna Polak-Vogelzang suddenly passed away on December 26, 2007. Our condolences go to her family.

Melba Tully Obituary

Melba M. Tully, age 87 years, died in Germantown, Maryland on Saturday August 25, 2007. Mrs. Tully, a native of Cincinnati, OH was retired as a Medical Secretary and resided in Germantown. She was the devoted Wife of Dr. Joseph G. Tully, mother of Linda (Donald) Johnson, grandmother of Robert, Tom and Chris Ballowe., and sister of John P. Weber.

According to Dr. Tully, Melba played an important role in the founding and early development of the IOM in 1973-1974 and in obtaining US federal assistance in recognition of the new society. The photograph of Melba and Joe Tully shown below was taken at the 10th IOM Congress in Bordeaux, France in 1994 when they were asked to talk about the early years of the IOM on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its founding.

A condolence message has been sent to Dr. Tully on behalf of the IOM.

David Pitcher Obituary

David Pitcher died on 27 September following a recurrence of oral cancer. The funeral was held on Wednesday 17 October at 2.30pm at:
Sacred Heart & St Aldhelm Catholic Church
Westbury,
Sherborne
Dorset
DT9 3EL

The family have requested no flowers, but donations to St Margaret's Hospice, Yeovil (where Dave was cared for) would be welcome. Should any member wish to send condolences to the family, the address for Dave's sister, Pat, is:

Pat and Rick Herring
10 Westridge Park
Sherborne
Dorset
DT9 6AW
UK

Alan W. Rodwell Tribute and Obituary are available.


	Home About Recent News General Information Membership Governance History Archives IRPCM Sitemap Affiliated Organizations Obituaries Member Log In		Obituaries Pediatric Virologist Robert Chanock Dead at 86 Melissa Lee Phillips August 9, 2010 — Robert M. Chanock, MD, whose discoveries of childhood respiratory viruses led to the development of several important vaccines, died on July 30 from complications of Alzheimer's disease, according to news reports. He was 86 years old. Beginning in the 1950s, Dr. Chanock and colleagues identified and characterized several viruses that are important causes of respiratory illness, especially in children. His work led to vaccines and treatments against several major respiratory pathogens. Dr. Chanock spent most of his career at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Chanock's "innumerable contributions to the understanding of viral diseases helped make the world a healthier place for millions of people," current NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said in a statement. In 1957, Dr. Chanock and colleagues identified respiratory syncytial virus, the most common childhood cause of serious lower respiratory tract disease, which kills at least 200,000 infants each year. The researchers developed an antibody to prevent respiratory syncytial virus illness in high-risk infants and worked on a vaccine that is now in clinical trials. "You don't find many people who are able to study the cause of a problem, its importance — How many children or adults did it affect? — and then develop a vaccine," Albert Kapikian, MD, a colleague of Dr. Chanock's at NIAID, told the Washington Post. "He was a giant in the field, a legendary figure, because he was able to cover these 3 areas.'' During the next several decades, Dr. Chanock's group discovered and characterized many other important respiratory pathogens, including the 4 parainfluenza viruses, several strains of rhinovirus and coronavirus, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes bacterial pneumonia (Chanock, R.M. Mycoplasma pneumoniae: proposed nomenclature for atypical pneumonia organism (Eaton agent). Science 140:662, 1963. ). Dr. Chanock helped develop a vaccine against the respiratory pathogen adenovirus and conducted research that led to vaccines for hepatitis A and rotavirus, a common cause of childhood gastroenteritis. His group was also involved in developing the first intranasal spray influenza vaccine. More recently, Dr. Chanock and colleagues began work on vaccines for West Nile virus and dengue fever. Dr. Chanock's accomplishments are "unparalleled in the history of American virology," Dr. Fauci told the Washington Post. Dr. Chanock was chief of NIAID's laboratory of infectious diseases from 1968 until 2001. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973. He began his career under the mentorship of Albert Sabin at the University of Cincinnati, who developed the oral polio vaccine. Among the many awards Dr. Chanock received in virology and pediatrics, in 1995 he was awarded the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal for exemplary research in the field of vaccinology. One of the founders of Mycoplasmology, Eyvind A. Freundt, passed away May 31, 2009. His obituary can be obtained here. Dear IOM Members, Dr. Janet Robertson has notified us that Dr. Maurice C. Shepard died on December 12, 2007. Dr. Shepard published the original description of ureaplasmas and their association with male urethritis in 1954. He was an honorary member of our organization and the IOM held an international symposium on ureaplasmas in his honor in Seattle, Washington in 1985. The announcement below was published in his hometown newspaper. A more complete biographical summary of his life and contribution to mycoplasmology will be written by Janet for the next IOM Newsletter and website. Ken Waites IOM Chair Maurice Shepard 91, of Jacksonville, NC died Dec. 12, 2007, at Pitt Memorial Hospital. He was a retired civil service microbiologist for the U.S. Navy. He was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth Erika Shepard. Survivors include his three daughters, Julia Shepard Friant of Jacksonville, and Jean Shepard and Evelyn Shepard, both of New York City, N.Y.; one sister, Miriam Shepard Peterson of St. Paul, Minn.; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society, 930-B Wellness Drive, Greenville, NC 27834. Robert F. Whitcomb died on December 21, 2007 from brain cancer. His obituary was published in the Washington Post. Below is a picture of him at the last congress in Cambridge. Left to right: David Taylor-Robinson, Alain Blanchard, Robert Whitcomb. Submitted by Alain Blanchard. Robert Franklin Whitcomb, 75, a research entomologist at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center who identified more than 50 new species of leafhoppers and about 60 new species of microorganisms, died of brain cancer Dec. 21 at Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center in Sierra Vista, Ariz. He lived in Sonoita, Ariz. Dr. Whitcomb was known worldwide for his 1972 discovery of the genus Spiroplasma, a group of mollicutes, or small bacteria without cell walls. He worked on these microorganisms for the rest of his career. "The world is essentially a microbial world," he wrote in a 1989 paper. "Although we may pretend to be eukaryotes, we are impostors. Spiroplasma, although discovered a mere 17 years ago, may be the largest genus of any kind on earth and may contain more than a million species." He also was deeply interested in birds, and one of his articles, which applied the ideas of island biogeography to mainland bird populations in the eastern deciduous forest, was considered a landmark study. It led to the current emphasis on the negative effects of forest fragmentation on biota, or all the living organisms of the forest. On the Agriculture Department's Beltsville campus, Dr. Whitcomb was widely credited with the successful re-creation of its grasslands, a unique landscape in the Washington area that contains the progeny of plants seeded in Colonial times or before. More than 234 species live in the uncut meadowland, he told a Washington Post reporter in 1997, and it's managed naturally. Ideally, that would include lightning-set fires. "I called the Prince George's Fire Department and asked what would happen if I set a match. [A fire official] said, 'You can set fire, but I've got to come and put it out,' " Dr. Whitcomb said. "I don't think our director would be too happy if we burned down the surrounding subdivisions, but I'd love to torch the savanna." The savanna is off Poultry Road, near a row of houses just beyond the 7,000-acre government farm. "These people were complaining because of a wasp nest in our trees," Dr. Whitcomb told The Post. "Can you imagine what would happen if we torched the prairie?" Few might expect a natural scientist to be born in New York City, as Dr. Whitcomb was. He graduated from Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., and received a master's degree in entomology in 1958 and a doctorate in plant pathology in 1961, both from the University of Illinois. He did postdoctoral work in entomology at the University of California at Berkeley for five years. He moved to the Washington area in 1966 to work at Beltsville, where he remained for the next 30 years. He was an original member of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology in 1974 and taught one of its methods courses in Bordeaux, France, in 1984. He received the group's highest honor, the Kleineberger-Nobel award, in 1994. He published more than 300 scientific papers and in 1979 was one of four editors of a new series of scientific reference books, "The Mycoplasmas." Dr. Whitcomb, who also had a home near Elkins, W.Va., enjoyed participating in the Christmas Bird Counts in the Washington area from 1970 through 1996. He moved to Arizona the next year and participated in the counts there as well. He ran surveys on several breeding bird routes in West Virginia for more than 30 years, and in 1988, he coordinated the northeastern quarter of the West Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas. In retirement, he became interested in oral history and recorded interviews with members of the World War II generation, some of which were turned into articles in the West Virginia magazine Goldenseal. Dr. Whitcomb also published two books of his poetry, in 1998 and 2007, and was a member of an Arizona poetry group. He played competitive Scrabble for the past 10 years. His marriages to Mary Brown and Miriam Becker Courtney ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife, Judith Whitcomb of Sonoita; four children from his first marriage, Bruce Whitcomb and Julie Whitcomb Yates, both of Baltimore, and Douglas Whitcomb and Stephen Whitcomb, both of Columbia; two stepdaughters, Pam Olejar and Ruth Courtney, both of Fort Lauderdale; and five grandchildren. We have learned from Uus van den Wall Bake, her niece, that retired member Mrs. Anna Polak-Vogelzang suddenly passed away on December 26, 2007. Our condolences go to her family. Melba Tully Obituary Melba M. Tully, age 87 years, died in Germantown, Maryland on Saturday August 25, 2007. Mrs. Tully, a native of Cincinnati, OH was retired as a Medical Secretary and resided in Germantown. She was the devoted Wife of Dr. Joseph G. Tully, mother of Linda (Donald) Johnson, grandmother of Robert, Tom and Chris Ballowe., and sister of John P. Weber. According to Dr. Tully, Melba played an important role in the founding and early development of the IOM in 1973-1974 and in obtaining US federal assistance in recognition of the new society. The photograph of Melba and Joe Tully shown below was taken at the 10th IOM Congress in Bordeaux, France in 1994 when they were asked to talk about the early years of the IOM on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its founding. A condolence message has been sent to Dr. Tully on behalf of the IOM. David Pitcher Obituary David Pitcher died on 27 September following a recurrence of oral cancer. The funeral was held on Wednesday 17 October at 2.30pm at: Sacred Heart & St Aldhelm Catholic Church Westbury, Sherborne Dorset DT9 3EL The family have requested no flowers, but donations to St Margaret's Hospice, Yeovil (where Dave was cared for) would be welcome. Should any member wish to send condolences to the family, the address for Dave's sister, Pat, is: Pat and Rick Herring 10 Westridge Park Sherborne Dorset DT9 6AW UK Alan W. Rodwell Tribute and Obituary are available.