Jonathan Owen (a professor at Columbia) tweets:
Gilbert Stork (1921-10/21/2017) His last manuscript published in September, 2017 @JOC_OL: tinyurl.com/y8ph6l4u tinyurl.com/yagycwtbCondolences to his family, friends and coworkers.
Note 22 in his last OL paper "[...].At this point, we realized that we did not have enough material
ReplyDelete(a few milligrams) to go through the several steps for this conversion. One would have to restart the whole synthesis. But I (G.S.) am now 95 years old..."
What a loss to the organic chemistry community. He will definitely be remembered as a sort of great grandfatherly figure to some of us younger folks, relayed by "Storkism" stories told by our advisers who once took a course with him in Havemeyer Hall.
ReplyDeletePlease, sir, may I trouble you for an anecdote?
Delete(quote from "Master and Commander", a very good film.)
I got u, CJ
Deletehttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201200033/abstract
Here's one my adviser told me, from his undergrad days at Columbia in the 1970's.
DeleteHis organic chemistry course was taught jointly by Gilbert Stork and Clarke Still. Clarke Still taught the first few courses, and then Gilbert Stork taught the next few. Afterward, the class had a vote on whom they preferred to teach the remainder of course.
Both Still and Stork were very accomplished organic chemists. Stork, however, had a reputation for being a tough instructor and his expositions were obfuscated by his accent. "He was hard to follow," my adviser said. Clark Still, on the other hand, was able to convey his point very plainly and succinctly. "We all knew about Stork, and we all felt Still was the better instructor for the course," in my adviser's words. His class felt the same way and voted for Still.
The next class, Gilbert Stork walked in and said in his accented English, "Thank you for your feedback. I will be teaching the rest of the course."
Very sad, and now Breslow too.
ReplyDelete