Alumni Award Recipients A Riveting Life Story ’56, 2001 Alumni Awardee By Carol J. Suplee

f someone were to make a factual Act I; Scene I: It’s the late 1930’s, brother and sister-in-law Edward movie of Mario Capecchi’s life, it Mario is born to a beautiful, lov- and Sarah Ramberg in America, would be more amazing than any ing, poetically gifted mother, Lucy they send passage money and the plotI contrived by even the most inven- Ramberg, whose decision not to war-lacerated duo comes to the US tive screenwriter. marry his handsome, but unreliable in 1946. Through a childhood grievously Italian pilot father showed her fierce g disrupted by war and deprivation, independent streak. For his first Mario and Lucy settled in Bucks Mario survived to become one of the three years, Mario lives an idyllic life County at Bryn Gweled, a widely diverse pre-eminent molecular biologists in with his mother in a Bohemian cooperative community now celebrating the world. His work has begun a chain commune whose diverse inhabit- its 60th year. The open-hearted reaction among research scientists that ants are open about their opposi- Rambergs took over Mario’s nurturing will benefit mankind immeasurably. tion to and all of its evils. and education. Winner of the Kyoto Prize in basic “My aunt and uncle had the task of science (the of Japan) and Scene II: As the Nazis gain power, turning me into a civilized creature. It the from the Franklin his mother realizes she is vulnerable, was a struggle for them,” Mario recalled. Institute in Philadelphia, Mario is cur- sells all her belongings and pays a Through his aunt and uncle and his ex- Laurie Fraser (left) and husband rently a distinguished professor of hu- Tyrolean peasant family to care for perience at , he came to Mario Capecchi ’56 wanted their man at the Mario. She is soon arrested and sent believe that “you could—you should— daughter Misha ’02 (center) to School of Medicine in Salt Lake City and to Dachau. do something to make this a better experience the freedom George School an investigator at the Howard Hughes world.” provides its students in pursuing Medical Institute. Scene III: Inexplicably, the money To survive the war, he had developed “new knowledge.” In simple terms, Mario described his runs out about a year later. At age skills that proved inappropriate to the research as rewriting parts of the mas- 4½, Mario is turned out by his genteel rhythms of Bucks County life. sive instruction manual that resides in caregivers. He is on his own. Totally unschooled, he was put into third and controls every human cell. The unit grade. He credits understanding teach- School’s nurturing, family approach also that carries out the manual’s instructions Scene IV: Mario heads south on foot ers for allowing him to draw and paint has been validated in his professional is the gene. Mario discovered how to tar- and for the next four and a half years, murals until he learned English. That experience. get genes with specific functions and al- he lives on the edge of death. At took about three months. Mario found “In our lab, we have people from all ter the function i.e., “change the text.” times he joins up with bands of other that because he was the little Italian- over the world. Some of these kids come “Every cell holds two copies of the orphans, living by their wits on the speaking kid from an ultra-progressive to us already burned out. They’ve been DNA,” Mario explained. “If, for ex- streets. He learns to beg, to steal, to community, kids used to try to bully him drilled on information until they are ample, the father’s copy is messed up, fight, and to focus all his intelligence and he would beat them up. School life saturated with facts, but their creativity we can figure out which is the good copy, on one goal: staying alive. was not easy. has suffered. Freedom allows you to shed make a purified fragment and reintro- But, he survived and thrived, and what you think you know and to be open duce that into the cell. The two pieces Scene V: The war ends and, remark- eventually enrolled in George School. to new knowledge,” he said. “George line up and recombine in normal se- ably, his mother survives Dachau, Here, he faced another major transition, School gave us that freedom.” quence.” The implications for human though she is forever scarred in soul an intellectual one. In public school, it Mario is deeply concerned with how benefit are infinite. and spirit. As befits this melodrama, was easier to hide one’s intelligence. He society can provide all children with a Currently, drug research is largely ac- she finds Mario on his ninth birth- discovered that it was acceptable at nurturing environment that will allow cidental. Researchers learn what new day, starving and naked in an Ital- George School to pursue learning. And them to pursue their dreams. drugs do, but they do not always know ian hospital. Mario and other chil- it was fun. “Our level of understanding of hu- why. This ever-expanding revelation— dren ostensibly are being “treated” “I recall only excellent teachers at man development is too meager,” he told how genes work, why they don’t work, for malnutrition, but they are fed George School,” he said, praising the the Kyoto audience in 1997, “to allow how to isolate specific faulty genes and only cold coffee and dry bread once influence of Bill Cleveland, Frau us to foresee which of the children in repair them—is beginning to revolution- a day and kept naked so they will Blaschke and coach Bill Sutton. our midst will be the next Beethoven, or ize drug research and development. not run away. Lucy brings new When he entered , he Modigliani or Martin Luther King.” Or, ■ clothes (Mario still treasures the saw that George School students were as indeed, the next Mario Capecchi. g Tyrolean hat), food and, for the first well-prepared as any from the most pres- Against the backdrop of this extraor- time in years, a bath. tigious science-oriented high schools. Alumni Day On Saturday, May 12, 2001, dinary achievement, the script of Mario’s He and his wife, Laurie Fraser, are Mario Capecchi ’56 will present a workshop from 9 - 9:45 a.m. Contact Alumni Director Raven life is all the more riveting. Scene VI: Remarkably, Mario’s pleased that their daughter Misha is a Goldener ’94 for more details 215-579-6567, mother also manages to contact her George School junior this year. George [email protected].

George School • Georgian Volume 73 • Number 1 • Winter 2001 4