4 thoughts on “Charles Gilvarg

  1. Mark Aanonsen, Purchasing

    I met Prof. Gilvarg when I first started working at Princeton. In reading the article, it brought back many memories, and with my responsibility being the Lab Equipment, supplies & chemicals Purchasing Agent, I had a fair share of interaction with him. We had this little genesis of a building attached to Chemistry on Williams St. at the time, and it was called BioChem Sciences. He was a brilliant man, and everything we ordered and touched was cutting edge and new, and required much research. Not being in any of his classes, in this way he taught me as well, about a new science that was still taking off, to the huge building now located on lower Washington Rd. I didn’t just “purchase”, he schoole dme, and I learned the why & the how of Equipment we were purchasing, and he, in and of himself, gave me a Education as well. I remember his tight smile, he looked like he was always “testing” you! It was amazing how fast that Science exploded, of course, to what we now call Molecular Biology. Thanks for my little piece of your journey Prof. Gilvarg, and for the things you taught me – may you Rest In Peace Professor.

  2. Mrs Gilvarg

    Thank you Mr Aanonnsen for your lovely senitments. I’m sure my husband learned from you as well. He said that he learned something from everyone he worked with.

  3. Colleen Klein, Program Assistant, Molecular Biology

    I’ve only been at Princeton for less than 2 years but I’ve seen Dr. Gilvarg every day. He would come into the main office of Molecular Biology every day at 3pm and get a decaf. coffee. His warm smile and hello were the highlight of my day. I did not get to know him very well but seeing him every day was a pleasure. He will be missed.

  4. Charles Weissmann

    I met Charlie 1961 when I joined the Dept. of Biochemistry of NYU. he was one of the most brilliant individuals I knew, with a highly critical mind and little tolerance for stupidity. Unforgotten is his comment to a medical student during an oral exam: “the only thing standing between a hundred thousand dollars and you is me”. After my return to Zurich Charlie came to my lab for a Sabbatical, in which he developed a original method for mapping the sequence of oligonucleotides derived from Qbeta RNA, a subject far removed from his previous interests. His witty response when I told him of a paper by my competitor Sol Spiegelman, saying “if Spiegelman claims this, it must be wrong”: “he is not that reliable”. I am very sad to hear of his demise. I think of him with admiration and affection.

    Charles Weissmann

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