The Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology mourns the passing of our friend and colleague Martin Freundlich

Marty Freundlich, a long-time faculty member of the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology died March 20 at the age of 94. Marty was raised in Brooklyn, received his B.S. degree at Brooklyn College where he also began his scientific career publishing a paper in Nature on antimicrobial substances in plant seeds. He went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota in the laboratory of Herman Lichstein. There, he studied the regulation of tryptophan metabolism in E. coli.  He performed his postdoctoral work in H. Edwin Umbarger’s laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor where he began studies on the biosynthesis of the branched-chain amino acids isoleucine, leucine and valine. He continued working on the genetics and biochemistry of this pathway, in both Salmonella typhimurium and E. coli, for the rest of his career. After a successful postdoctoral period, he was hired as an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth University by Mel Simpson. In 1967, when Mel moved to Stony Brook to start the Department of Biochemistry, he recruited Marty to come with him. Marty remained in the department for his entire career, teaching biochemistry and molecular genetics to undergraduate, graduate, and medical students; serving as Chairman twice from 1974 to 1977 and from 1986 to 1989; and training many undergraduate and graduate students in his lab.

After Bill Lennarz’s arrival as chair in 1989, the department was renamed and expanded to Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Marty was a valued mentor to many of the junior faculty hired during this period. In particular, he served as the “teaching czar” coordinating all the teaching assignments within the department. He is fondly remembered for his wisdom, collegiality, and wit.  Marty retired in 1999 but continued to live in Setauket with his wife, Ann Sutton.  They enjoyed traveling and gardening and following his beloved NY Knicks. He is survived by Ann as well as three children and six grandchildren.

A gathering of family and friends will be held at Marty and Ann’s house, 50 Main St. East Setauket, on June 8 from 2:00-5:00pm.