Via the Tallahassee Democrat, this sad news:
Dr. Robert Anthony Holton, known as “Bob” to friends and colleagues, was a groundbreaking chemist and the scientist behind the first total synthesis of the cancer drug Taxol. He died peacefully at his home in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 21, 2025. He was 81.
Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and raised in Charlotte, he was the son of Marion Downing Holton and Aaron T. Holton. He met his first wife, Juanita Bird, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while earning his undergraduate degree in chemistry. They moved to Tallahassee, where he earned his doctorate from Florida State University and had their first son, Robert. After postdoctoral work at Stanford University, where their second son, David, was born, he held faculty positions at Purdue University and Virginia Tech. He returned to FSU in 1986 with his second wife, Dr. Marie E. Krafft, where they both held faculty appointments in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and had their son, Paul. He spent the remainder of his career at FSU.
He is best known for his work on Taxol, a potent chemotherapy agent originally derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. The semisynthetic process he developed was the first commercially viable method for large-scale production. In 1993, he and his research group achieved the first successful total synthesis of Taxol, one of the most intricate and celebrated accomplishments in synthetic organic chemistry. His breakthroughs helped expand access to a critical cancer treatment and marked a milestone in the history of medicinal chemistry.
A teenage memory: hearing about the wonder drug Taxol, and then (while volunteering at a hospital) hearing one physician say to another: "I'm going to be on [local TV show] and they're going to ask me about Taxol - what should I say?"
A grad student memory: learning about the semisynthesis from 10-deacetylbaccatin III, and thinking "that's really cool."
A professional memory: learning about the facility in Michigan where the trees are grown for taxol synthesis, and thinking "that's really cool."
Rest in peace, Professor Holton.