T Memo Y of Dr. Reuben Lasker Who, Until

HIS ISMOF THE Fishery Bulletin is in memoy of Dr. Reuben Lasker who, until This death, was Chiefofthe Coastal Fisheries Division of the Southwest Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service. The contri- butors and I feel both a debt ofgratitude and a strong bond ofpiendship to this scientist who profoundly influenced our investigations, our careers, and the field ofmarine larval ecology. Our regret is that Reuben will not see this tribute. Andrew E. Dizon, Ph.D. Scientific Editor 375 .. REUBEN LASKER. A Remembrance.. It is the spring of 1989 in La Jolla, California, almost with a minor in chemistry, from the University in a year since our friend and colleague, Reuben 1950. When a graduate research fellowship Lasker, left us after a valiant battle against cancer. became available in marine biology, Reuben made We remember him fondly, with respect and admira- a fateful career decision to abandon medicine and tion for the man and for the scientist whose intellec- applied for the post. He was awarded a full tuition tual honesty and humanity endeared him to his scholarship with stipend for studies in marine associates. We, therefore, dedicate this Festschrift biology at the University of Miami where he concen- to the memory of a remarkable human being, a trated on studies on the physiology and cellulose warm and caring man, who combined a lifelong digestion in the shipworm, Teredo. He was granted passion and dedication to the marine sciences with his M.S. in marine biology from the University of a bright intelligence, a lively curiosity, and an abid- Miami in 1952. ing appreciation of the world around us. Approaching the end of his fellowship at Reuben was born in Brooklyn, New York, Miami, Reuben began to investigate options for December 1, 1929, the only child of Theodore and continuing his graduate education. He corre- Mary Lasker. As a child he contracted rheumatic sponded with the physiologist, Professor Arthur fever, and as was customary at that time his doctors C. Giese of Stanford University, who had an prescribed bed rest for an extended period, when ongoing marine program at the Hopkins Marine Reuben read avidly. The illness, which left Reuben Station. With Giese's encouragement Reuben with a slight heart murmur, influenced his activities applied for and was granted a predoctoral fellow- and increasingly the boy turned to bookish pursuits. ship from the National Institute of Health for his He did well in school, attending the prestigious doctoral studies at Stanford University. Initially, Boys' High School in Brooklyn, graduating at 16. Reuben was given a small stipend to study the Because of his health, his father decided that nutrition of the plentiful sea urchins around Mon- Reuben should go to college in Miami, Florida, to terey Bay. With his young wife, the former Caroline escape the rigors of the severe winters in New York Hayman, the couple drove west in their 1941 black Accordingly, in 1946, Reuben enrolled at the Uni- Ford sedan. versity of Miami as an English major. Reuben spent the years from 1952 to 1956 on Midway through his college career, Reuben the Stanford campus in Palo Alto researching and switched his major to zoology with the thought of writing his doctoral thesis on cellulose digestion in becoming a medical doctor and in fact actually the silverfish. He picked his doctoral topic by served as president of the premed society. He chance, although he believed in Pasteur's maxim received his B.S. degree with honors in zoology, that chance favors the prepared mind. As Reuben 376 Opp. page, left Dr. Goahif Hempel of West Germany took thii relaxed picture of Reuben during a visit to his laboratory in Building T-21 on the Scripps campus in 1963. Opp. page, right Examining a 1 m CalCOFl planktonnetin 1965onthedeckofthe Bureau of Commercial Fiheries research vessel, Black Doqlas. Right Reuben receiving the US. Department of the Interior SirMedal in 1970 as Gerald V. Howard. Regional Director of the southwest Region and Alan R. Longhurst Director of the Fihery-OceanographyCenter look on. was fond of telling the story, he was sitting in a ticket from Palo Alto to San Diego and a check for gloomy roomette where the only object left by the $50 "to cover expenses." At the train station in San former occupant of the cubicle was a box of tissues Diego, Reuben was picked up by Leo Bemer, then a used in laboratory work. When he reached over and graduate student at Scripps and presentty a pro- pulled one out, an insect fell down to the table top, fessor and former dean of oceanography at Texas skittered away, fell to the floor and disappeared into AGM University, who later became a close friend. a crack. The tissue was full of holes and he realized Famous names in marine biology were in that what he had seen was a silverfish who had attendance at the meetin-bert Szent-Gyorgyi, made a meal of the paper. Cellulose is difficult to Nobel Laureate for the discovery of vitamin C the digest by most organisms, and the conventional English biochemist Ernest Baldwin; Eugene Odum, thought was that animals that eat cellulose, such as ecologist from the University of Georgia; Roger the cow or termites, have microorganisms in their Revelle, then the Director of the Scripps Institution stomachs to do the digesting for them. Reuben of Oceanography and later one of the founders of reflected that since no one had ever mentioned how the University of California, San Diego; John Isaacs, a silverfish did its cellulose digesting, this might be professor of oceanography who was destined to a suitable topic for a Ph.D. thesis. On completion, have a profound influence on Reuben; and many the thesis was ranked "Superior" by Stanford Uni- others who collectively represented the forefront of versity and established Reuben's reputation as an research in marine biology, worldwide. authority on the physiology of this insect He re- Buati, a geneticist, was then a professor at ceived his Ph.D. degree in biology in 1956. Scripps. He offered to submit a proposal for In February 1956, Science magazine carried a Reuben to the Rockefeller Foundation to culture small announcement in its back pages that a meet- euphausiid shrimps, a project on which Reuben ing, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, was had been working. On his return to Stanford, to be held at the Scripps Institution of Oceanog- Reuben wrote the proposal and by retum mail raphy in La Jolla, California on the future of marine received notice that he had been awarded a post- biology. A small amount of money had been set doctoral appointment for $5,000 a year (tax-free). aside for graduate students who were asked to By the following September, Reuben and Caroline apply to Dr. Adriano Buuati, the convenor. Reuben arrived in La Jolla in a car packed with all their promptly wrote to Buuati, explaining that he was a possessions. graduate student at Stanford in marine biology and The project Reuben chose for himself was to eminently qualified by inclination and interest to attempt to maintain euphausiids in reasonable attend. By return mail he received a round-trip health in the laboratory and to find out how effi- 377 .. REUS& WKLR: A Remembrance.. Reuben with Wallerio Garcia, Jacobo Melcer, and Paul E. Smith abmrd the research vessel A Humbold in 1975. Opp. page. left In foul weather gear aboard the Univeniky of Alaska's research vessel. Alpha Helix, during a research cruise to the Pribilofs in 1982 to study groundfish. Opp. page, right: Showing off the Huntsman Medal for Excellence in BiologicalOceanog- raphy awarded him in 1983 by the Canadian government's Bedford Institute of Oceanography. ciently they used their food. Since no one offered to for the Laskers during this time was the birth of their provide him with live animals to work on, Reuben daughter, Pamela. arranged to go to sea on the Scripps T-boat (the It was also during Reuben's sojourn at Scripps U.S. Army's designation for Transportation), an 80- that a meeting took place which had important foot vessel with a 3-man crew. Dosed massively implications for his future. Through a mutual friend with Dramamine, the former BrooMynite who never he met John C. Marr, Director of the U.S. Depart- learned to swim, was taught how to catch euphau- ment of the Interior's Bureau of Commercial Fish- suds by scripps researchers Elizabeth and Brian eries, South Pacific Fisheries Investigation, who had Boden. During one particularly eventful trip, recently relocated his laboratory in the old Direc- Reuben was 10 miles off San Diego where the vessel tor's residence on the Scripps campus. Marr was had been stopped to deploy a plankton net Alone interested in Reuben's work on euphausiids, and on deck, in heavy seas and without a life jacket, some months later when the laboratory was reorga- Reuben remembered the ship giving a sudden nized he asked Reuben to head up a physiology lurch that propelled him forward over the chain section. Meanwhile, Reuben had accepted a job at railing. Fortunately for Reuben he managed to save Compton Junior College; although it provided him himself by grabbing a projecting object as the ship with his first taste of teaching, he informed the dean steamed ahead at 10 knots away from where he that he would not be renewing his contract because would have been hurled into the sea. he wanted to return to research. At the end of the Until he finally figured out the correct dosage of academic year, the Lasker family left Compton and Dramamine, Reuben was very susceptible to sea returned to La Jolla, where Reuben had been sickness.

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