REUBEN lASKER: A Remembrance. . . 



It is the spring of 1989 in La Jolla, California, almost 

 a year since our friend and colleague, Reuben 

 Lasker, left us after a valiant battle against cancer. 

 We remember him fondly, with respect and admira- 

 tion for the man and for the scientist whose intellec- 

 tual honesty and humanity endeared him to his 

 associates. We, therefore, dedicate this Festschrift 

 to the memory of a remarkable human being, a 

 warm and caring man, who combined a lifelong 

 passion and dedication to the marine sciences with 

 a bright intelligence, a lively curiosity, and an abid- 

 ing appreciation of the world around us. 



Reuben was born in Brooklyn, New York, 

 December 1, 1929, the only child of Theodore and 

 Mary Lasker. As a child he contracted rheumatic 

 fever, and as was customary at that time his doctors 

 prescribed bed rest for an extended period, when 

 Reuben read avidly. The illness, which left Reuben 

 with a slight heart murmur, influenced his activities 

 and increasingly the boy turned to bookish pursuits. 

 He did well in school, attending the prestigious 

 Boys' High School in Brooklyn, graduating at 1 6. 

 Because of his health, his father decided that 

 Reuben should go to college in Miami, Florida, to 

 escape the rigors of the severe winters in New York. 

 Accordingly, in 1946, Reuben enrolled at the Uni- 

 versity of Miami as an English major. 



Midway through his college career, Reuben 

 switched his major to zoology with the thought of 

 becoming a medical doctor and in fact actually 

 served as president of the premed society. He 

 received his B.S. degree with honors in zoology. 



with a minor in chemistry, from the University in 

 1 950. When a graduate research fellowship 

 became available in marine biology, Reuben made 

 a fateful career decision to abandon medicine and 

 applied for the post. He was awarded a full tuition 

 scholarship with stipend for studies in marine 

 biology at the University of Miami where he concen- 

 trated on studies on the physiology and cellulose 

 digestion in the shipworm. Teredo. He was granted 

 his M.S. in marine biology from the University of 

 Miami in 1952. 



Approaching the end of his fellowship at 

 Miami, Reuben began to investigate options for 

 continuing his graduate education. He corre- 

 sponded with the physiologist. Professor Arthur 

 C. Giese of Stanford University, who had an 

 ongoing marine program at the Hopkins Marine 

 Station. With Giese's encouragement Reuben 

 applied for and was granted a predoctoral fellow- 

 ship from the National Institute of Health for his 

 doctoral studies at Stanford University. Initially, 

 Reuben was given a small stipend to study the 

 nutrition of the plentiful sea urchins around Mon- 

 terey Bay. With his young wife, the former Caroline 

 Hayman, the couple drove west in their 1941 black 

 Ford sedan. 



Reuben spent the years from 1 952 to 1 956 on 

 the Stanford campus in Palo Alto researching and 

 writing his doctoral thesis on cellulose digestion in 

 the silverfish. He picked his doctoral topic by 

 chance, although he believed in Pasteur's maxim 

 that chance favors the prepared mind. As Reuben 



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