A "Pure" Organic Chemist's Downward Path: Chapter 3—"Retirement"

A "PURE" ORGANIC CHEMISTS DOWNWARD PATH: CHAPTER 3—"RETIREMENT" MICHAEL HEIDELBERGER* Charimon: . . . Is'tyou, sir, that knows things? Soothsayer:/« Nature's infinite book ofsecrecy A little I can read. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 2 In the first two chapters [1, 2] I stressed the important roles luck and chance have played in shaping my career. Both will be seen as determinant factors in this final installment as well. Chapter 2 ended with the transfer of personnel and equipment in 1955 to Selman Waksman's Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NewJersey, a year before mandatory retirement at Columbia. I had worked with Selman in 1938 on a committee [2, p. 15], and his son Byron and I had become friends during Byron's stay in the laboratory at P. and S. in 1950, when he introduced us to probits and struggled gamely with the second component ofcomplement [3]. At the institute one large laboratory and a smaller adjoining one with an office had been assigned to us, but neither had a chemical hood. I was much touched when Selman offered to give up his own laboratory, the only one with a hood, but his sacrifice was avoided by extension of the ducts and construction ofa hood in our larger room. My original intention was to start an immunochemical group under Otto J. Plescia's direction and to pull out after 2 or 3 years. The first part ofthe plan succeeded, but the congenial atmosphere of the institute, the favorable working conditions, the balance between teaching and research, and, above all, the unselfish and complete willingness of Otto to have his former chief stay on reFor the opening quotation, the one in chapter 2, and for many hours of patient, helpful listening and suggestions the author is indebted to Elizabeth S. Payne of Worthington, Massachusetts, and to her late husband, John C. Payne, formerly Dean of Education at New York University. *Emeritus professor of immunochemistry, Columbia University New York. Present address : adjunct professor of pathology, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Avenue, New York, New York 10016.© 1981 by The University of Chicago. 0031-5982/81/2404-0242f01.00 Perspectives in Biology andMedicine · Summer 1981 | 619 suited in my remaining for 9 years. I had also delayed accepting the proffered, salaried Visiting Professorship of Immunochemistry because I did not wish to abandon a home in New York for a supposedly temporary assignment with rather arduous commuting. A departing Norwegian visitor, however, vacated a small apartment in the owner's house on Freed's egg farm not far from the institute. This made it possible to commute in one direction only on most days. In spite of occasional bad odors when an easterly wind blew, this was a satisfactory arrangement. The Freeds were very friendly and often shared a home-baked cake or a nonlaying chicken with their tenant. There was one untoward occurrence : Mr. and Mrs. Freed went on vacation the day Arne Tiselius, an old friend, came to lecture at the institute. I had asked them to fix up a normally unused bedroom across the hall from my apartment so he could stay overnight. After Arne's lecture and the ensuing dinner, I drove Arne to the egg farm only to find a woman sleeping in the bed. The Freeds hadn't told their caretaker of the intended occupant, so we withdrew silently without even awakening the sleeper and found a room at the hotel for Arne. As the first winter approached, I could not get a heater for my obsolete 4-cylinder 1939 Oldsmobile and often had to stop and scrape sleet or snow from the windshield before going on. After Charlotte Rosen and I were married and we had rented Professor Whitmer's house in Highland Park when he went to the National Science Foundation , Charlotte often came to New Brunswick with me on Saturday or Sunday. We then had one of the last small Plymouths, reliably acquired secondhand through Mary Loveless, who had worked briefly in the laboratory at P. and S. and had, in her medical practice, cured a Plymouth dealer of an allergy. When parked near the...