Lawrence Grossman (1924–2006)

The nucleic acids research community lost one of its true pioneers with the passing of Larry Grossman on January 13 at the age of 81. Larry was born and raised in New York City where he dropped out of high school to help support his family and then enlisted in the Navy as a fighter pilot. He was shot down at the age of 19 or 20 and spent two days alone in a life raft in the Pacific prior to being rescued. Larry liked to point out that, while it was commonly believed that George H. W. Bush was the youngest naval pilot to be shot down during World War II, Larry was younger, though he would concede that the ex-president may have been the youngest Republican to have been shot down. Larry left the Navy at the end of the war with two Distinguished Flying Crosses and, having witnessed the death of one of the Japanese pilots whom he shot down, a dedication to anti-war activities. Thanks to the GI Bill, Larry obtained his high school diploma followed by a Bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Hofstra University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California. He began his independent research career at Brandeis University in 1957, moving in 1975 to Johns Hopkins where he was Chair of Biochemistry in the School of Hygiene and Public Health. Larry was among the very first to introduce enzymology into the study of DNA repair. He is probably best known for his characterization of the E.coli UvrABC excision complex, the individual components of the complex and the functional interactions of the complex with UvrD and DNA polymerase I. His laboratory also characterized the UV-dimer DNA glycosylase of M.luteus, discovered the human Damage DNA Binding Protein, DDB, and characterized several other DNA repair enzymes from M.luteus and human placenta. Larry then became interested in DNA repair capacity and its relation to cancer susceptibility and aging. He developed a test for DNA repair capacity, and then collaborated with epidemiologists and oncologists to pursue these studies. Larry published numerous articles in Nucleic Acids Research and served as an Executive Editor of the journal in 2000 and 2001. He often started his seminars with the same joke: “In a previous talk I asked whether everybody can hear me and a voice from the back said, ‘I can hear you, Dr. Grossman, but I would be happy to change seats with someone who can't.’” We will miss hearing Larry, his incisive comments, his jokes, and his political insights. However, he will remain present as an inspiration to all of us who knew him not just for his science, but also for his sailing, skiing and poker prowess, and of course his wonderful sense of humor.