 | Frederic Lawrence Holmes |
A memorial service celebrating the life and work of Frederic Lawrence Holmes, the Avalon Professor of the History of Medicine at the School of Medicine and a world authority on the history of science and medicine, will be held on Friday, April 11.
Professor Holmes died at age 71 on March 27 after a long illness.
The service in his honor will take place at 5 p.m. in the Historical Medical Library, Sterling Hall of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. A reception will follow in the Beaumont Room, Sterling Hall of Medicine.
Professor Holmes, who chaired the Section of the History of Medicine for 23 years (1977-2002), is described by his students and colleagues as a gentle and generous teacher and a formidable historian whose publications helped define the field of the history of science and medicine.
His internationally renowned publications include several books on the work of French chemist Antoine Lavoisier and German biochemist Hans Krebs, as well as the volumes "Claude Bernard and Animal Chemistry" and "Meselsohn, Stahl, and the Replication of DNA: A History of The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology."
Professor Holmes was a leading force in building Yale's program in the history of science and medicine, both as a scholarly field and as a link between the humanities, natural sciences and medicine. In collaboration with the Department of History, he helped established an undergraduate major in history of science/history of medicine in Yale College, and under his leadership, the section in 1986 inaugurated the graduate-level History of Medicine and the Life Sciences Program. Owing in large measure to Professor Holmes' advocacy, in 2002 the Yale Provost established a newly constituted Program in the History of Medicine and Science, anchored equally in the Section of the History of Medicine and in the Department of History -- forming an intellectual and institutional bridge between the School of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
When Professor Holmes learned of his illness about a year ago, he moved to half-time phased retirement and devoted himself to work on two major projects. Last spring, he began a work on the nature of the scientific enterprise, past and present. His early draft manuscript was the foundation for a symposium honoring Professor Holmes, which was held at the medical school in September 2002. His book, along with expanded versions of comments made on his draft at that event, will be published in spring 2004 by the Yale University Press as "Investigative Pathways: Patterns and Stages in the Careers of Experimental Scientists."
During the final months of his life, Professor Holmes concentrated on finishing his ongoing study of Seymour Benzer and the history of molecular biology. Those who visited him at Yale Health Services recall a room filled with books, papers, a laptop computer and a scholar eager to talk about ideas. Professor Holmes finished the final chapter two weeks before his death, and "Between Molecular Biology and the Classical Gene: The Pathway of Seymour Benzer into the rII Region" is now with Yale University Press.
Frederic Holmes received his B.S. degree in quantitative biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954. He then began graduate work in the Department of History at Harvard University, but his study was interrupted by two years in the Air Force. He received his M.A. degree in history in 1958, but on returning to Harvard he transferred to the Department of the History of Science, where he received a Ph.D. in 1962.
In 1964, after two years of teaching at MIT, he became an assistant professor in Yale's Department of the History of Science and Medicine, and in 1968 was promoted to associate professor. He left in 1972 to become professor and department chair at the University of Western Ontario. He remained there until 1977, when he returned to Yale as a full professor and chair of the Section of the History of Medicine. He became Avalon Professor in 1985, and from 1982 to 1987 was master of Jonathan Edwards College.
His many honors include the History of Science Society's Schumann Prize, Pfizer Prize and Sarton Medal; the American Association for the History of Medicine's Welch Medal; and the American Chemical Society's Dexter Award. He was president of the History of Science Society 1981-1983, and became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994 and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2000.
Professor Holmes' wife of many decades, Harriet Vann Holmes, passed away in 2000. He is survived by daughters Susan Holmes of Belgrade, Maine; Rebecca Holmes of Bethany, Conn., and Catherine Kirby of Branford, Conn.; by grandchildren Lucy, Vann, and Martin Guarnieri; by a brother, John C. Holmes of Arlington, Va.; by a sister, Nancy Sen of New York City; and by his partner, Petra Gentz-Werner of Berlin, Germany.
The family has asked that contributions to memorialize Professor Holmes be made to the Beaumont Medical Club (c/o Section of the History of Medicine) designated for the Frederic Holmes Lectureship Fund, which was established last year in his honor; or to Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati, Ohio.
T H I S
Frederic Holmes, a noted historian
of science and medicine
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