Lewis Libman Engel 1909–1978

It was a gray day when we gathered in Harvard Yard that November morning. The flight into Logan Airport and the drive to Cambridge had brought me there ahead of the others. I had time to wander about the buildings and walks and to sense the ties that had bound him to this institution and to this academic life, and which had given him such satisfaction.

Slowly the others began to gather, singly, in twos and threes, outside Memorial Church. We greeted each other silently, a handshake, a word, a murmured phrase, an embrace. We slowly took our places alone and separately in that quiet and simple chapel. And we reflected.

Lew had been at the top of his form at the Mont Tremblant meeting, and we all had been gratified to find him in fine fettle, recovered so well from a course of surgery, a few months earlier. It was with disbelief and shock that we learned that he had died suddenly at his laboratory on September 13, 1978, only twelve days after the Laurentian Hormone Conference had ended. One week Lew Engel had been among us, and then in one day the world had grown somber and suddenly poorer. That mood persisted still at that gathering at the Harvard Memorial Church.

We all had our own private feeling of loss. Each of us had his own picture of what would be missed in the aftermath of his death. For we all loved Lew for what we knew him to be: a fine human, a skilled scientist, a man of high ideals and utter honesty. But we were not alone. We learned that day that there were others beside endocrinologists who had known him, and they grieved too, and for reasons many of us had little or no inkling, at least not from anything he had ever mentioned.

As the thoughtful, anguished, and reflectful tributes were made at that modest but elegant memorial service, it became clear that few of us had known the whole Lew Engel. Few of us were aware of all his interests, his facets, his accomplishments. It took the telling by several of his closest associates for us to learn of his devotion to all the many aspects of academic life, to the science, and particularly to his students.

In the end, we came away with a sense of discovery and of enrichment that the fine friend whom we had cherished was even greater in depth, wider in scope of human relations, more generous of his wisdom and talents than any would have guessed. We came away with the realization that our Lew Engel, while having enriched the lives of each of us in one respect or another, had done so in so many different ways, to many, many others. He left behind a heritage of good works, selflessness, and integrity known best by those whom a kind destiny had allowed to cross his path.

Those of us whose interests are in endocrinology knew Dr. Engel through his scientific work in the field of the estrogenic hormones. Those of us who encountered him over the years at this Laurentian Hormone Conference and at meetings of the Endocrine Society are fully aware of his unstinting contributions to both organizations, both as a contributing scientist and as a devoted officer and editor. In this area alone, he will be sorely missed.

But did we know him as his colleagues knew him in other walks of life? His work in the undergraduate program at Harvard for instance? “He came to us as tutor on his return to Harvard in 1947 … and for almost thirty years he was the mainstay of the Tutorial Board. Perhaps some 200 students worked with him during the course of those years. He would come to Cambridge from the Medical School for a number of hours each week, working on a one-to-one basis with undergraduates whose interests lay in that borderline where physics, chemistry, and biology meet. In 1957 he took over the management of the whole Tutorial Board for a year in the midst of all his other activities. He handled the affairs of over 200 students and appropriate tutors with his usual quiet effectiveness and grace, and did it again in 1963 and 1964 … .” (John T. Edsell, professor emeritus, Harvard). To most of his endocrinologist friends outside Boston, this was an unknown side of Lew Engel.

“He joined the Senior Common Room at Quincy House and became at once a friend of all the students and teaching staff. … He would discuss the abstruse aspects of his biochemical research, … he would give advice to students on the ins and outs of carving out careers in medicine and in science. … He brought in distinguished academic visitors to enliven our gatherings … at sherries, musicales, and House dinner parties. He was the very ideal Senior Common Room member: a specialist, a generalist, a scientist, a humanist, and a compassionate humanitarian. As a scholar of great distinction, he probably did not wish to suffer fools gladly, but if so he never showed signs of impatience: those of us who forgot what a steroid was were graciously forgiven. … His manner was courtly, friendly, alert, witty, dryly humorous. … The Houses of Harvard were designed for, and desperately need such associates. …” (Charles Dunn, Master of Quincy House, Harvard).

“Lew was my tutor in Biochemical Sciences, 22 years ago … and was also my husband’s tutor a few years earlier. … He was extremely demanding [but] somehow his great enthusiasm … made it seem important that a student read extensively and think critically. … Not only did he stimulate his students to work to the maximum of their potential, but he was truly interested in them as individuals. … I consider my tutorial with him as the outstanding intellectual experience of my undergraduate years. … I will never forget Lewis L. Engel.” (Roberta F. Colman, University of Delaware).

Few of us were aware of Lew Engel’s close ties to the field of cancer, first with the research aspects of the field and, later, in the educational programs of the American Cancer Society, particularly with the Massachusetts Division. He was an official and advisor for over twenty years and its vice president and president from 1972 to 1976. Here again, his concern for and interest in the careers of young aspiring scientists were evident. Despite considerable odds, and with the usual tact and decorum, he was instrumental in helping create several new fellowship programs for young Massachusetts investigators entering the field of cancer research. In recognition of his interest and devotion, the American Cancer Society honored him by awarding him the Society’s Professorship in Biological Chemistry for the remainder of his career.

Not too many are aware of the unperceived and often unacclaimed contributions a man such as Lew Engel makes to the various scientific bodies and agencies of his field. We all know that Dr. Engel was president of the Endocrine Society in 1972–1973 after serving the Society in various offices for several years and as its chairman in 1965–1966; he was elected to the Society’s Council in 1958 and again in 1965; and as vice president in 1962. He devoted over twelve years to the editorial board of Endocrinology. It is no small wonder that his fellow scientists of that Society honored him with the Eli Lilly Lectureship at its annual meeting in 1970. Such was his service to one professional society.

The respect came from other fields in which his high standards and judgment were also called upon: two terms on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry (1959–1964; 1964-); Committee on Population Problems, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1962–1963); Program Committee of the 2nd and 3rd International Congresses on Hormonal Steroids (1963–1966 and 1968); McFarlane Professor of Experimental Medicine, Glasgow University, Scotland (1967–1968).

His service to this Laurentian Hormone Conference is best told by our own President, Dr. Roy O. Greep: “His long record of devoted and effective service to the L. H. C. dates back to 1953 when he was appointed to the Board of Directors by Gregory Pincus, the founder of this annual conference. Later, he became its Secretary-Treasurer, a post he held to the time of his death. In helping to formulate the annual program and by actively participating in the scientific proceedings, Dr. Engel played a key role in maintaining the Laurentian Hormone Conference as the most prestigious scientific meeting within that new branch of biomedical science, endocrinology. It is through the work of such stalwarts as he, that this new field of study has come to occupy a position of importance to human health and welfare.”

There was an elusive quality to the way Lew Engel approached science. He never followed trends, but held steadfastly to a course of progress which kept apace of the new techniques and the new concepts, but nevertheless maintained a firm base in the laboratory skills of analytical chemistry. He loved a well-designed and well-executed piece of work. He trained and kept a group of skilled and devoted workers around him, all of whom he loved and respected and was rewarded by them in kind. Their moist eyes and pained smiles of greeting were very evident that November day.

I worked closely with Lew Engel for several years while I was at the Worcester Foundation. At the time we were just beginning to use the newly available 14C- and 3H-labeled steroids and steroid precursors in our studies. Our concern was with the isolation procedures and purification techniques which would lead us to reliable and valid results. Those were great times! The Worcester Foundation group would...