Ed's retirement conference, 2000 |
Ed Hare was born in 1933 in Burma, while his parents served
as missionaries for the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He attended Pacific Union
College, where received his B. S. in Chemistry. One year later, he earned a M.
S. degree from University of California at Berkeley. For his doctorate, he
studied at the California Institute of Technology, under the guidance of Hans
Lowenstam. Ed’s dissertation was on the amino acids and proteins from carbonate
minerals found in the shells of modern and fossil mussels (Mytilus californicus), which was subsequently published in Science magazine in 1963.
His work
attracted the attention of then Geophysical Laboratory Director Phillip H.
Abelson. The two scientists corresponded for several years until Ed Hare was
invited to join the scientific staff in 1963. During his early years at the
Laboratory, Ed set up an instrument, new at that time, to measure amino acids,
the building blocks of proteins. His first paper on the development of new
methodology for amino acid analysis appeared in 1966 in the Federation of the
American Society for Experimental Biology, in which he described the use of
pressure coupled with automation to simply the analytical procedure.
In 1968, Ed
Hare and Phillip Abelson published the first paper on the discovery of left and
right-handed amino acids in fossil shells. Living organisms are composed almost
exclusively of left-handed amino acids. After an organism dies, the left-handed
amino acids convert to right-handed amino acids, a process that Hare developed
for accurately dating ancient shells and bones. His work for the remainder of
his career centered around studying the conversion, called racemization, and
exploiting for dating early Man in North America, early human evolution in
Africa, and the geological progression of Arctic climates.
When the
first rocks came back to Earth from the Moon, Hare was involved in searching
for signs of life on these precious samples. He published his findings in Science in 1971, finding some evidence
for amino acids in lunar samples, but most probably from terrestrial sources.
By this time, Hare’s laboratory became the training ground for young scientists
from paleontology, geochemistry, archaeology, and biochemistry. In 1979, he
published a landmark methods paper on new techniques for measuring the left and
right-handed amino acids. With co-author and inventor Emanuel-Av from the
Weitzmann Institute of Science in Israel, they obtained a patent on their
invention.
Ed
passed away in 2006. I spoke at the memorial service for him that was held at
the 7th Day Adventist Church in Takoma Park. He had retired in 1999 and died seven
years later on the day of the Geophysical Lab’s Centennial Celebration, which
also happened to be Tom Hoering's birthday. Ed Hare as one of three
organic/biogeochemists at the Geophysical Lab worked with Tom and me from 1977
to 1995, when Tom died and George Cody arrived on the scene. Tom and I worked closely
together over the years, but Ed was more of an occasional colleague. At the old
Lab, Ed's lab and office were on the 2nd floor, whereas Tom and I were on the
first floor.
The
memorial service brought up some of the central issues of Ed's Life.
First, to The Seventh Day Adventist Church
and his family and friends, Ed was known as Peter, which is his first name. As
we listened to the stories about Ed, it was even more clear that Ed as Peter
was a completely different person than the man we knew at the Geophysical
Laboratory. The 7th Day Adventist Church is one of the fundamentalist religions:
they don't eat meat, their Sabbath is on Saturday, they don't drink alcohol (at
least not when others are noticing). They also believed the Earth and the world
were about 12,000 years old before Ed started his work in amino acid dating.
The
story came out again and again at the Memorial service that Ed Hare
(Peter Hare actually) changed the way this
fundamental religion viewed the
Creation. At a party he was asked what was
the oldest organic matter he had ever analyzed. "25,000 years", he
said," but some rocks were hundreds of millions of years old". These
facts blew the minds of the Adventists that day, but as earth scientist we knew
he’d analyzed rocks billions of years old, and some of those bones were over a
million years old. It was the dichotomy of Ed/Peter's Life. Ed was sent to
graduate school specifically to try to prove that the Earth was only 5,375
years old, like the Bible claims. When he reported his findings to the Church
along with Irving Taylor and David von Endt, the Church essentially
excommunicated them for several years. Eventually, the Church came around, with
Ed and his colleagues writing a book for them on rectifying science with
stories in the Bible.
At
the annual Geophysical Lab Christmas party, I think Ed often ate a piece of the
roast beef. Even in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, God is forgiving, and
when the roll is called, Ed will be there. Near the end of his career at the
Lab, he was heard to emit a swear word or two; God is forgiving, and when the
roll is called up yonder, he'll be there. Let me describe his normal working
day at the Old Lab.
The
door to Ed's lab was always closed. You walked into his office, which
was also the home of the amino acid analyzers
and gas chromatograph.
Around a corner was another instrument lab
complete with whirring liquid chromatographs and ovens. Further around the
corner was a chemical prep lab littered with dirty glassware, old samples,
various science trash, and a fume hood that never worked. In an interior room
entered through a swinging door, was the acid room. Fixtures corroded to a fine,
peppery green, acid stained floors, cabinets, windows, and the proverbial fume hood
that did not work. Instruments that entered this room, never came out unless
they were sopping with acid and completely destroyed. It was science the old
way.
Glenn Goodfriend (l) and Ed Hare (r) circa 1993 |
As
the Memorial service went on, the accolades heaped on Ed, I could not help
thinking about how we at the Lab and his close colleagues thought of him in the
last 10 years or so of his career. Ed had turned into a difficult man. The
timing was hard to pin down. Was it a difficult postdoc that he had? Was it the
move to the New Building? Was it the requirement to write grants? Was it the
death of his old Professor? Was something happening at home? Was he depressed
or having complications from medication? We could not pin down the problem.
Time
after time, Tom and I would try to start a project with Ed, only to have it
stall at the start, or halt in the middle, or putter out at the end. Ed was
unable to write scientific papers, and his presentations were growing embarrassing.
I recall his last show to the Visiting committee, when he appeared with some
yellowed overheads, and talked about work he'd done twenty years before. In
conversation, Ed had a way of looking off to the distance after about 5
minutes; in the lab, he could get angry and yell at a student.
So
we grumbled. I did my work with my friend Noreen Tuross. Ed's lab was propped
up by Glenn Goodfriend (who passed away a couple of years ago himself), who was
a "difficult" person at best. When Ed retired, he walked out of the
lab, and I was left the chore to clean
it out and up. Ed never threw away anything, nor did he open any mail. I found
some great correspondence, but threw out an enormous amount of stuff. (I
frequently remind Doug Rumble that if I have to do this for him, I will hunt
him down!) The signs were all there, but we were not able to read them.
Within
6 months of his retirement, Ed was no longer able to hide his problems. It was
determined that he had an advanced stage of Parkinson's disease, without the
shaking. His wife Patti took over. She was on a mission to save her Peter from
the ravages of this disease. They moved from their home in California to a
retirement community in Florida. His wife was a true saint through out this
time. Ed never recovered, and also had Lyme disease on top of this. After his
death, it was determined that he had a form of dementia somewhere in the middle
of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. He is gone; the roll will be called up yonder,
and Ed will be there.
At
the service we heard only good things. Peter (Ed) was a trumpet player; he loved
basketball and baseball; he took his grandchildren to fast food restaurants
(and they too will be called up yonder, not to worry); he gave science lectures
to the Church and changed their opinions about the age of the Earth and the
Creation. There was little mention of how the disease had affected him, but it
was in our minds, those of us who worked with him daily.
Ed
Hare was a great scientist. He revolutionized paleontology by enabling
people to date fossils. He trained an army of
geochemists, archaeologists,
stratigraphers, and organic geochemists. At
the Lab, he was both Yin and
Yang. The memories of Ed at the Lab today are
dimmed, only a handful of people knowing who he was and what he accomplished.
His last years did not help him. None of us understood what he was going
through.
As
Type A people, we reward those scientists who continue "sharp as a tack"
into the office every day until they die. We tend to judge older scientists
with the eyes of youth--why aren't they on the same funding track as I am?
Their labs are old fashioned, we really need their space. I'll never get old,
and if I do, I'll make way for younger folks. And then, there you are. Looking
retirement, or possible disability in the face, and what do you decide? What
can I learn from Ed's story? A host of things-tolerance, learning not to judge
without knowing all the facts, acceptance that old age isn't always Golden.
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