Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: I remain sad that I could not join the 2014 symposium for Hilary. On many occasions I have addressed Hilary, who was a very special friend for >50 years, such as when he turned 70 and 90 years old and when he became Philadelphia citizen of the year. A rare appreciation of our relationship was the fact that Hilary named one of his (ferocious?) dogs “Norrby.” I am grateful that my name appears among those who were his special friends. Erling Norrby The vast, vast majority of us are destined to be forgotten in the fog of history. Like untended and rarely visited graves overgrown with weeds, with leaning headstones and weathered carvings, increasingly unremembered as immediate family and contemporaries die, our glorious accomplishments fade into nothingness. However, some very few are remembered. Their accomplishments are revisited, the headstones of their memory are perpetually up righted, and their works are a tended garden. Such a one is Hilary Koprowski. Ellen Heber-Katz After the training course for the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), I was offered a list of assignments, one of which was at the Wistar Institute in an anthrax laboratory. I was not interested in anthrax, initially (it later turned out to be fascinating, and some of my work was published during the 2001 anthrax attacks). However, I had read some of Hilary's papers and noted that he was moving from Lederle Laboratories to head the Wistar Institute. These papers were interesting scientifically and beautifully written. Thus, I campaigned for the assignment, and fortunately no one else was interested. This turned out to be the most important career decision I ever made. Soon after arriving at Wistar, I went to see Hilary to ask him if I could work in his virology laboratory. He was welcoming, and that led me to work on polio virus and, subsequently, on rubella virus, rabies virus, and other viruses, leading to vaccines against them. I learned a lot from Hilary, not only about virology, but also about music, art, and, perhaps most important, joie de vivre. Stanley Plotkin I had the privilege of knowing Hilary under 4 different circumstances. I first met him when I was a graduate student with Heinz Kohler at Roswell Park. I was working on the structural basis of anti-idiotypic antibodies and their underlying mechanistic actions, and Hilary and Wistar investigators were moving forward with anti-idiotypes in the clinic. I saw him with the eyes of a student and was in awe of his accomplishments. The second circumstance was when I had to face him across a negotiation table to license antibody technology, when I was at IDEC Pharmaceuticals in San Diego. I then saw him as a force to be reckoned with and was in awe of his negotiation skills and how he built the technology transfer machinery at the Wistar Institute: the Wistar was Biotechnology before Biotechnology. The third circumstance was as an institute director—and my boss. Hilary recruited me from IDEC to Wistar when he realized that I was seriously considering leaving IDEC to work for Carlo Croce, then at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology. Hilary called me on a Sunday night and told me that he had booked a flight for me for the next morning and that I better be on it!!! I was in awe of his gumption. It was hard to say no to a determined person with conviction. The fourth circumstance was as a confidant and colleague. After we both left Wistar, Hilary would call to ask for favors: to review papers, to review drafts of his grants, to speak to investors and principals on his behalf, to get advice on antibody engineering, to read his business plans, to speak about science, and, in the last year of his life, to try to convince me that we should start a new institute in Poland!!! Hilary was always the visionary, and appropriately, at the time of writing, a new antibody therapy for Ebola virus disease is being tried in patients. The treatment involves antibodies that were produced in tobacco plants, a technology that he championed the last 10 years of his scientific career. I will always be in awe and think fondly of the man, the myth, and the legend of Hilary. As will others, I will dearly miss him. Thomas Kieber-Emmons When Hilary invited me to join the Wistar Institute, I was interested in host defense and its failure in malnutrition. Hilary's plans for me were rather different, but his persuasive efforts to sway me to his wishes were not successful. I applied for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, and although it was approved, it fell below the funding range. When I received this disappointing message and was brooding at my desk and trying to figure out my next step, Hilary appeared unannounced, smiling broadly, and declared in his distinctive Polish accent, “Congratulations, now you will be able to devote yourself to real science.” This comment and his smile were no balm for my injured ego, and I responded instantly with an Anglo-Saxon vulgar invective suggesting what he should do to himself and he left. As I reflected immediately on what I, a recently appointed junior member of the Wistar Institute, said to its world famous director, I came to the conclusion that I had just sealed my fate and fully expected to be fired. Although nothing much happened right away, in mid-afternoon I received a phone call from Peggy O'Neill, Hilary's assistant, who, in her mellifluous voice, asserted, “Dr Koprowski would like to see you in his office at 5 o'clock. Can you come?” Of course I could, and I fully expected that my assumption of being fired was correct. When I arrived and was ushered into his office, I found him sitting at his desk with a pitcher of ice-cold martinis, and the only question he asked me was whether I wanted an olive or a lemon peel in my glass. He made no allusion then or ever to our earlier interaction, and instead of being fired, I remained at Wistar for some years, and my friendship with Hilary lasted until his death, when it was replaced by deep sadness over this inevitability. Michael Katz This story captures much of Hilary as a man, scientist, and friend. I had known him as a colleague and budding friend, but this trip would define our future relationship. It was sometime in the 1970s. Hilary was going to a few meetings in Asia. I was going to a few meetings in Europe. He called me and noted that we could go around the world together: if I could get him invited to the European meetings, he then would get me to the Asian meetings. It worked. As we went forward, Hilary noted that “we needed to bring 5 or 6 books each and then … could share after finishing our own.” I agreed. A week later, he had a list of what books I should buy! Lesson 1: Hilary was an intellectual, and of course he could assume he knew better than me what I liked. We proceeded to begin the trip. Suddenly, I found to my total surprise that I was in first class. Hilary had quietly paid the difference. Lesson 2: Hilary could be very generous. As the flight entered the heights, he began a theme of education (of me), which became lessons 3, 4, and on. Hilary engaged me in the values of a scientific career that was not limited to the laboratory but included different cultures, friendships with people all over the world, the pure joy and fun of medical research, and an opening of new ideas for research. At the same time, to some degree it helped begin my realization of the importance of not being wary of big questions in medical science and of not being afraid of some risk. I hope some of us will be able to do as much for the next generations. Bob Gallo I joined the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wistar Institute primarily because of Hilary Koprowski and the strong group of virologists he had assembled. When he interviewed me, in 1970, he asked what I wanted to do, and I told him that I wanted to find the virus that causes multiple sclerosis. His eyes lit up, and he jumped up and said that that's exactly what he wanted to do, too, and that I must come to work at Wistar. After I arrived, I quickly realized that Dr Koprowski had a great ability to cut to the chase scientifically. But when he had a new idea—and they were legion—he wanted those studies done immediately. It was not always easy to oblige him to do an additional study and to do it quickly, and that led to some uncomfortable discussions. But H. K.'s support and excitement for identifying the multiple sclerosis virus was always there. We both devoted considerable effort to isolating a virus or detecting viral footprints in multiple sclerosis and from and that had with multiple sclerosis but were not able to do I think of all of the different scientific studies that H. was in during my years at Wistar, the for the virus for multiple sclerosis was what him the science, it was a joy to to Hilary or to from to His of and were always H. is smiling about this of the to his is nothing I say that will what a being Dr Koprowski I with him for years, and I will his for the next He me much and asked in He went from being a to a friend. He is one of the I have ever had the to I my that my in me to time when it was just that the to viral was at in for the Hilary and I, who were both interested in this to an for on We first met in and then at the Wistar Institute to the but we in Hilary, in his great said to me, the is we get in and we have to do is find a are no to the such as the The next I we were our to come and Hilary asked his to join On the morning of the first I came to with my and a of scientific and Hilary that we had just a trip and that we should and see the for the next of and then get to We had a On the morning of the third I came to with my and scientific with the of to work after Hilary although we had around the the of the was under and that we come to the for a of Hilary was and it was a On the morning of the I came to with my and to begin to However, Hilary that the was noted for its and that we should go to the and out some special and for our over the next of When we to the it was and Hilary that and who were would and with a of in our we would them. I that it was a On the morning of the I came to with my and scientific and to into my some I to Hilary that I had the and a in which we could work but that the had me that were Hilary about my We should not work Hilary said that he had asked the to up on the with a table in who was a before became an would our of Hilary some for both of and as we were in our we a of time tried to some of the Hilary would those are the for the next as the was to we the first of the Soon it became to and we went to On the morning of the I came to my On the to the Hilary that this was a very trip. that we had the first else would He then go to and it will now you no time to the later, after many drafts and a of the I the and a to Hilary, who said it was The was and, to my was by Hilary that we would have this if we had not to the I think that all of Hilary's would that Hilary made interesting and and for we him much and are At the time I joined Wistar, were a of on the scientific Although were or had this said to me, go for the and for in the were few was a of the some do science and a few were but they in a the and in the when I was were to the and for the were to at the and be Although I I was the scientific I was as a But what could that to I was to be at the Wistar Institute, which had me at my very first as had the director, Hilary Koprowski. I came from my as a at the University of in However, before I entered graduate in I had for 4 years and at University and University and as the only at a by a Wistar we made and for and with vaccines to the and all of this was on my I was when Hilary told me that I would work with a Wistar for to I had great during the 4 years I was my and my I was how to and and many other all of which I knew and had to I in but I bring to or Hilary that all of this and we We but only because the time for my was up, not because I As we a in Hilary's and I found a scientific to my was I also to working in a laboratory with viruses, with its to the and the I about this quietly in the me they were very However, I also made known that I had a and me that they were very with in their I one year a of and I was afraid but me to as I the Wistar and the to the that would me to with a of one or the other but I was in over the and It appears that had a Wistar a on the I also found that had not entered into the of the but I was to my and a week or Hilary was years, I Hilary on to and the I had a to do for up and in were among my assignments, but it was efforts that I was to and became of the scientific I was The strong of in the family and the of Hilary's on his desk me that Hilary was to strong but my to speak out in my not work in my and my a away, I was in the that was and of our working laboratory I joined one of the and the last to my and with the on the last of the last as it out of me on me as the phone call to my to ask him to the into their and to me up at the that came the realization although I had to be the of Hilary's ever that was and I had to an career or up, which was not a I applied for my grants, which were and I asked for and was my laboratory It some a time to I was then with 4 other to or the of the Wistar at the University of in of the and We were to the Wistar and by a which also us to and meetings. This was the that ever happened to a person who wanted but it not work out as for some of the other I learned with that all of the Wistar scientific had but not After much I asked the scientific director, not Hilary, about this and was last at came as a member with in Wistar I found that my other were than I was able to in this but I could not bring to with Hilary the of for my in The was that Hilary think I needed because I was in a relationship and my other made a of as as that and I had This was later at a for the of our Cancer Institute Cancer grant, when it was noted that the were paid than the at Wistar and that this would have to be before the would be As a director, I was the only paid from this These are in memory of Hilary a great of a very institute at an interesting time in But then I am because I for and with and in his he me to It me, and it made me with Hilary was a that and He would and his such different as the of a or the of vaccines in Such into the only by the to or to the at his Hilary had an for the of a a or an whether it was a a or a scientific Hilary have he or and led him into the of their to his great works of art, in have a in the Hilary's me and other after Hilary's with that the had not published an I to people at the who science and that this was an and me to the was and we the Hilary wanted and of my to de during as in their of career. I was as a by of and new across the Thus, my to and was I wanted to be an and only into because this to be a to have to other in for their and the of an at the University of I interviewed with the Epidemic Intelligence Service but instead to additional training in at the University of when that I would not be able to on work on in the The of in San and the that me on and the that my for and and the of and in I joined Michael group at the Research Institute for training in virology and he me to Hilary from the known Hilary's at the University of and from out her to me when I However, this was no for the who for 90 about his and A few later, my to a by Hilary and in which they that was to with an as from and Hilary, I to this by that years but the of for and and a for and and disease by his Hilary the majority of his effort in and He the of and the of for and On Hilary his of the of the polio for a by of He began and his with to of known as of I will Hilary's in this to his what our fate not a a a be but be as a in or science, in it and Although he is not with us to in to each of the in this is that Hilary not He on in the art, music, and science that we first as an and later as a medical student at the University of I by the Wistar Institute. told me it was an but I from the if much was in Wistar during my first year of medical after I met who was her graduate studies under a member of the Wistar Although I met a of the study of I had the to with his Hilary who in from Lederle Laboratories to assume the at Wistar. years later, in me to Hilary, with I a friendship that with Hilary was always and Hilary had an of science, art, music, and European his you from Hilary a special of and of Although I of as one of his very special I quickly realized that his many people to as they were of his Hilary was had read many of my papers on and that I had He was about because he and his had in for of the in with the Hilary me for in the National of and I was in the of same Hilary and I were in at a on the of virus and when one of the and to be for my the very virologists who had my appeared to be trying to the that I that I Hilary me that such was When he to he me a of a The of the had 4 which read my but and not and I told you I always said it was a I of it the years, our friendship I always forward to and the When Hilary that my work on the he became my most his a I will but I it was After years of Hilary became in the of when the had not to A year later, when call from Hilary was the first person I the was on the He was the most story about Hilary's came the next when he said to me, it I am no for I a I no to how to convince the after the at the of the National of in Hilary, Carlo Croce, Bob and I would have which became a At each of Hilary would us in I always forward to for the with and, After such a in I asked Hilary if he could and me see the in the This is the and it last one the of to the and the other the of both were in Hilary said that he had a who is a in the and that he would him. Hilary's him with who was the and named of in and a in Hilary and began a in later, Hilary called to that I needed a phone that in that I could a call from the when we were in 6 later, when and I were a call came from the The and is you will be the I her and said we would to the which was by the at o'clock. Hilary had told me that we would be and that we should ask him to us see his After arriving at the we for by their At around the Polish were in but our were not I asked the to for was the name on their and we entered the After up a we went into an with the in arriving at the fourth we into a with each the and their were called into a was sitting in a His were his would in a next to the and his or would for their the time and I made our to the the had and I had no to ask for a I also by not to the The I told that no was going to the of the and I on the of viruses, and in the on his by the people who When I the he and turned his head to at knew who we were and that I was from the After his the we out with no to the I the in who a and had a and told him that I would like to speak with he I Koprowski his very Dr Koprowski my very I do for would like to see the will you be I We are just us As was away, he not to see the in he was I had no what he and who is an We were at a the because the This that I this to Hilary, who the His of had made our A year would before we learned that the in the were being after considerable The in the years before in the on 4 my friend us into a had the to for years, as as the first in history. with Hilary was always a of was a His was his excitement about his was and his plans for new rabies vaccines were a of that him as he tried to the of and virology, Hilary was rarely his him and those around him. Hilary had the to a polio before his Hilary's work on an polio was but and his from We his on of in his as he he always to his and quickly the to some future study that he wanted to But most of his those around and he was that much could be and that was just over the Hilary my and that of many who were to have the to be among his friends. He had many and was by an figure in Stanley of have the for of of that the to the of the have
Authors: Don Gilden, Paul Lieberman
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2290344692