Memorial Resolution of the Faculty of the University
of Wisconsin on the Death of Professor David Perlman
(Faculty Document 530; 12 September 1983)
During the past two and one-half years, Professor David
Perlman, despite his terminal illness, cancer, showed courage,
will,, zeal, unflagging curiosity and discipline of mind.
These qualities provided life to his days and days to his
life then as those qualities had throughout all his days.
Born in Madison in 1920, educated at West High, David Perlman
received his degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison;
B.A. (Chemistry, 1941, with thesis honors); M.S. (Biochemistry,
1943); and Ph.D. (Biochemistry, 1945).
These were exciting years for microbial technology and
Wisconsin's Department of Biochemistry was one of the world's
outstanding centers of research. Perlman's tutors, Professor
W.H. Peterson and M.J. Johnson, were both understanding
of and sympathetic to his inquiring mind and allowed more
flexibility than was usual for graduate students in those
days. On one occasion, he biked (no ten speeders in those
days!) 200 miles from Madison to the Northern Region Research
Laboratory at Peoria to see, first hand, the penicillin
research there underway. He often joked that his eight-year
tenure as clarinetist in the UW Band was a record; he served
4 years each as undergraduate and as graduate student.
Following short periods at Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., and Merck
and Co., Dr. Perlman joined the Squibb Institute for Medical
Research as a Microbial Biochemist. He studied streptomycin
fermentation (where he discovered the enzyme mannosidostreptomycinase,
important in converting mannosidostreptomycin to the more
clinically useful streptomycin); process development aspects
of neomycin, vitamin B12 and tetracycline fermentations;
and practical application of mammalian cell culture. Remarkable
accomplishments during this period included discovery of
the conversion of Reichstein's compound S to hydroxylated
steroids, the commercially important microbial hydroxylation
of the 16 position of steroids, and the potential for metabolic
inhibitors to influence the biosynthesis of tetracycline
(resulting in the demethyl series of these clinically important
antibiotics).
In 1966, a Guggenheim Fellowship allowed Dr. Perlman to
begin studies on Vitamin B12-Antagonists at Professor's
Barker's Berkeley Laboratory and also to initiate studies
on the microbial transformation of peptide antibiotics starting
with the actinomycins.
After some 23 years in the fermentation phase of the pharmaceutical
industry, Dr. Perlman moved, in 1967, to the University
of Wisconsin, first as Knapp visiting professor, then as
Professor of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry in the School of
Pharmacy. His father, Professor Selig Perlman, the noted
labor historian, had been on the faculty of the University
for 45 years. The opportunities at the School of Pharmacy
included the possibilities of enlarging his research activities
and also teaching both undergraduate and graduate students.
From 1968 until June 1975 he served as Dean of the School
while carrying out his teaching responsibilities and supervising
an active research program. Unusual administrative problems
occurred during this period, including major damage to the
Pharmacy School building when a bomb was exploded in the
adjacent Mathematics Research Center. Nevertheless, during
his tenure as administrator the size of the student body
of the school doubled, the faculty increased by 150 percent
accompanied by substantial increase in research space.
During his deanship, Dr. Perlman taught an undergraduate
class at 7:45 a.m. each day, led the largest (or second
largest) research group in the school (depending on the
year) and carried lunch daily unless noon meetings were
scheduled. He met, personally, at lunch and from 4:40 -
6:00 P.M. each undergraduate and graduate student in the
school because of his consuming desire to know students,
their plans, hopes, and dreams. This contact led to mutual
regard, respect, and affection, and, at a later point in
his illness, to the creation by Phi Delta Chi Pharmaceutical
Fraternity of the David Perlman Scholarship Award and to
the spontaneous donation of blood for transfusing purposes
by over 60 percent of this undergraduate students.
Upon returning to full-time teaching and research, he increased
his activities. These included serving as editor of 27 book,
including the Advances in Applied Microbiology series and
the Annual Reports on Fermentation Processes, and participation
as a member of the editorial boards of the five journals.
His nearly 300 scientific and 75 nonscientific, but professional
publication attest to his enormous capacity for productive
work. He had 28 U.S. Patents.
Professor Perlman was also an active participant in the
affairs of scientific organizations. He served as Chairman
of the program committee of Interscience Conferences on
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in 1965-67; Chairman
of the Gordon Conferences on Coenzymes and Metabolic Pathways
(1967); Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the International
Symposium on the Genetics of Industrial Micro-organisms
(1978); Chairman of the Division of Microbial Biochemistry
and Technology (1965 and 1976), American Chemical Society;
Chairman of the Fermentation Division, American Society
for Microbiology (1974); member of the Board of Governors
of the American Academy for Microbiology (1971-74); member
of the Board of Directory (and later President) of the American
Society for Microbiology Foundation, Inc. (1972-75); and
Co-Chairman, New York Academy of Sciences Conference on
Vitamin B12 Coenzymes (1964).
His interest in promoting continuing education for the
professional microbial biochemist was attested to by his
organization of some thirty symposia at meetings of the
American Chemical Society, the American Society for Microbiology,
and the Society for Industrial Microbiology. As Dean, he
provided seed money to Extension Services in Pharmacy for
the initial development of audio-cassette courses for continuing
professional education; these have reached over 56,000 students,
world-wide. He organized and led several Industrial Fermentation
short courses for University Extension. This effort reflected
conviction that the professional microbial biochemist and
fermentation microbiologist must be kept current.
Characteristic of David Perlman was the intensity of this
effort, no matter the topic. He was at home discussing coin
and stamp collections with teenagers, ornithology with amateur
(and better) bird watchers, or baseball statistics and league
standings with the sports minded, and even the new Madison
or old Madison lore and history buffs and city planners.
His packets of information about living in Madison were
so thoroughly developed for candidates for faculty posts
that they could stand as models that chambers of commerce
or real estate bureaus would be well to copy. His worldwide
correspondences with personal friends and professional colleagues
in academic settings and industrial laboratories was based
on the respect given his background and knowledge and the
understanding that he knew how to weigh information and
to make decisions about scientific quality. In short, his
advice was sought and followed.
Intensity, conviction, and discipline were hallmarks of
David Perlman. While he had a keen wit and delightfully
wry but carefully hidden sense of humor, he never completely
relaxed except when with his closest friends. His teaching,
his research, and his writing, and even his hours of relaxation
with music, theater, or on the faculty bowling league were
tested against his own high and uncompromising standards.
In the latter days of his illness, his zest for life and
quest for knowledge did not diminish. As late as December,
1979, he met his postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduates,
conducting some of his classes from a wheelchair; he taught
an Extension course in Puerto Rico in February 1979 and
was planning for another such chose for the spring of 1980.
With all his personal problems, he never forgot the birth
dates of the children of faculty, friends, and colleagues.
While he did not seek them out, honors came to Professor
Perlman. Among these are election to the rank of Fellow
in the New York Academy of Sciences, The American Academy
of Microbiology, and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
He was also awarded: the 1977 James VanLanen Distinguished
Service Award and the 1978 Marvin J. Johnson Research Award
by the Division of Microbial and Biochemical Technology,
American Chemical Society; the 1979 Fisher Scientific Award
in the Applied and Environmental Microbiology, American
Society for Microbiology; the 1979 Charles Thom Award for
Research in Applied Microbiology, Society for Industrial
Microbiology; and the 1979 Pasteur Award for Applied Microbiology,
Illinois Section, American Society for Microbiology. At
his death on January 28, 1980, he was Edward Kremers Professor
Pharmaceutical Biochemistry is the School of Pharmacy, University
of Wisconsin-Madison.
Avid student, inquiring scholar, distinguished and honored
researcher, admired teacher, and respected administrator,
David Perlman will be missed not only by his devoted wife
Kato but also by his colleagues and many students of pharmacy
and fermentation chemistry whose lives were enriched by
his boundless and heartfelt concern. His many friends, who
came to know and to lose this complex and caring human being,
will miss him as well.
MEMORIAL COMMITTEE:
William L. Blockstein
Henry A. Lardy
Kenneth B. Raper
Charles J. Sih, Chairman
Melvin H. Weinswig
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