Whitehead creates first endowed
chair
Gerald R. Fink is named the Margaret and Herman
Sokol Professor of Biomedical Research.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Sept. 26, 2006) — Under a $4.0
million bequest from the estate of Margaret Sokol, Whitehead
Institute is establishing its first endowed chair, the
Margaret and Herman Sokol Chair in Biomedical Research.
“Margaret and Herman Sokol were enormously supportive
of Whitehead from the very first days,” says Whitehead
Director David Page. “This extraordinarily generous
gift will allow further progress in the basic research
that was so important to them.”
“I am deeply honored to be the first holder of
the Sokol chair,” says Gerald
R. Fink, a Whitehead Founding Member and professor
of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Margaret Sokol represents an important part of
our heritage: the many supporters who follow our progress
and share the excitement of Whitehead scientists as
they attack research problems.”
A former Director of Whitehead, Fink developed baker's
yeast as a model for studying the fundamental biology
of all organisms. His creative use of genetics, biochemistry
and molecular biology has yielded seminal discoveries
in gene regulation and infectious disease.
Margaret Sokol, who passed away last spring at age 90,
was the wife of the late Dr. Herman Sokol, former president
and chief executive officer of Bristol-Myers. Herman
Sokol served on the Whitehead Board of Directors from
1981 until his death of cancer at age 68 in 1985.
Margaret Sokol completed her husband’s term on
the Board from 1985 to 1987. In 1991, she established
the Margaret and Herman Sokol Postdoctoral Awards in
Biomedical Research to promote and enhance cancer-related
research at Whitehead. More than 20 Whitehead postdoctoral
scientists have benefited from Mrs. Sokol’s philanthropy.
A research chemist and business executive, Herman Sokol
along with several associates discovered the antibiotic
tetracycline in the early 1950s, and he developed the
basic processes for manufacturing it that are still
in use worldwide. Dr. Sokol joined Bristol-Myers in
1962 and organized the company’s international
pharmaceutical program. He was elected a director of
the company in 1973, acting as chairman of its pharmaceutical,
health care and international divisions. In 1976, he
was named president of Bristol-Myers, a position he
held until retiring in 1981. Previously, he had served
on the board of Technicon, the medical instrumentation
supplier run by Whitehead founder Edwin C. “Jack”
Whitehead.
“Herman was always characteristically modest about
his contributions to the very early field of antibiotics,
his rise through the ranks to become head of Bristol-Myers,
and his philanthropy,” recalls John Whitehead,
a member of the Whitehead Board of Directors. “He
was a very practical, smart, commonsense and no-nonsense
kind of guy, but he always had time to take a personal
interest in people.”
Many of Whitehead Institute’s researchers, alumni
and friends have fond memories of Margaret Sokol.
“I was impressed with her being a very down-to-earth
person, amiable and straightforward, and with a lot
of spark and a sharp sense of humor,” says Ittai
Ben-Porath, a postdoctoral researcher and former Sokol
Scholar. “She was a little person with great vigor
and life in her eyes; very inquisitive, kind, compassionate
and witty,” adds Andreas Herrlich, another former
Sokol Scholar and a postdoctoral fellow.
“Margaret Sokol was very supportive of what we
did, and excited to meet young people,” says Whitehead
Founding Member Robert Weinberg. “She had the
vitality of a woman 15 years younger.”
"She and her husband had a few institutions which
they cared about deeply, including Whitehead,"
comments Susan Whitehead, Vice Chair of the Institute's
Board of Directors. "She was a woman who was absolutely
not sentimental, but those sets of relationships with
organizations were very important to her. Margaret was
just an incredible character, and I grew to be extremely
fond of her. She was very sharp-witted, insightful and
opinionated, and she didn't suffer fools at all. She
was a very, very fine human being, and really her own
person."
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