University Times

Chemistry professor Rex E. Shepherd, a member of the Pitt faculty since 1975, died Sept. 14, 2003. He was 57.

Friends and colleagues said that his death, likely from complications due to a heart condition, was sudden and a blow to the department.

“This is a very sad, unexpected event,” said David Pratt, chemistry professor. “He was teaching this term. In fact, last year when he was successfully battling prostate cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, which can be quite debilitating, he continued to teach. Rex was just that kind of guy: dedicated, intense, committed, enthusiastic. He always pushed himself very hard. In a sense, chemistry was his identity: he found fulfillment in teaching and working. Everybody is taking his death really hard.”

A native of Greenville, Ohio, Shepherd joined Pitt’s chemistry faculty as an assistant professor. Prior to joining the Pitt faculty, he was a visiting assistant professor at Purdue University, 1973-1975, where he had earned his B.S. in chemistry in 1967. He earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees in inorganic chemistry at Stanford University, and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University and the State University of New York-Buffalo.

In 1981 he was named associate professor and in 1997 professor of chemistry at Pitt.
According to colleague and friend Tara Meyer, associate professor, Shepherd was a dedicated scholar and teacher who taught inorganic chemistry to graduate and undergraduate students, as well as general chemistry.

“Over the years, thousands of students have had their first exposure to chemistry in his lectures,” Meyer said. “No matter whether the students went on to get jobs in chemistry, medicine or any other profession, they left Dr. Shepherd’s class with a solid foundation in chemistry.”

Meyer said Shepherd was well known for his contribution to chemical literature and as a reviewer who would take the time to evaluate carefully other chemists’ articles and grants. But it was his dedication to students and colleagues that Meyer most recalled about him.
“As everyone in the department knows, the door to Rex Shepherd’s office was always open and he was generous with his time, often spending hours answering questions for the students from his lectures,” Meyer said. “Rex was kind and generous in a way few people are. If Rex promised that he would do something, you could count on him to do it.”

Shepherd was a member of the American Chemical Society, Phi Lambda Upsilon and the International Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Society.

Among his professional honors were a technical writing award from the Pittsburgh Chemists Club, a National Institutes of Health post-doctoral fellowship and National Science Foundation graduate and post-doctoral fellowships.

Shepherd’s research centered on the preparation and characterization of inorganic transition metal complexes that can serve as medicinal drugs or as models for metal ion-activated biochemical systems.

He also authored 139 publications, made 40 presentations at academic seminars and served as a reviewer for a dozen journals and several national agencies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. State Department.

At the time of his death, Shepherd was a member of the board of editors of Inorganica Chimica Acta (the international journal of inorganic chemistry) and of Bioinorganic Chemistry and Applications.

Shepherd is survived by his sister, Sandra Shepherd Slates, of Holly Springs, N.C., and a nephew.

There will be a memorial service for Shepherd at 7 p.m., Sept. 29, at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1719 Mt. Royal Blvd., in Glenshaw.
—Peter Hart