University Times

Richard Abrams, professor emeritus of biological sciences, died Jan. 28, 2008. He was 90.

Abrams came to Pitt in 1965 as chair of the then-Department of Biochemistry, which later in a merger of departments became the Department of Biological Sciences. He retired in 1984.

Raised in Chicago, Abrams earned his PhD at the University of Chicago. After World War II, he worked with the Manhattan Project and studied in Stockholm with Peter Reichard, doing research on early mass spectrometry, according to colleague and friend Ron Bentley, who succeeded Abrams as biochemistry department chair in 1972. Abrams also studied at Oxford under Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs in the early 1950s, Bentley noted.

“When Rich came to Pittsburgh about 1953 or so, he led a small research institute at Montefiore,” Bentley recalled. “There he was a mentor to a postdoc, Mary Edmonds, one of the few Pittsburgh people to be named to the National Academy of Sciences. I think many people would credit Rich with getting her started.”

Bentley said Abrams was well educated, considerate and willing to share his expertise in biochemistry with students and faculty alike. “As a gentleman of the old school, he tended to intimidate students and others who did not know him. But he was not really intimidating, but rather very helpful,” Bentley said. “I remember he also provided a good deal of stability during the turmoil of the departments merging. He was a steadying hand in a painful time for many of us.”

Biological sciences professor emeritus Jim Franzen remembers Abrams as a careful scholar with a healthy dose of skepticism. “He was always concerned about getting things right,” Franzen said. “He would often ask, ‘Is it really true?’ He was a stickler for accuracy. He also was very well informed, but not a show-off. I don’t remember him ever trying to impress anybody.”

Abrams served one year as vice president of the University Senate, 1981-82.

Bentley said Abrams was a chamber music fan, and had a variety of other interests outside academia, including politics.

Abrams is survived by four children, Peter Erica, Lauren and Christy.

A curriculum vitae was not available at press time.

—Peter Hart