Joseph Holden

Holden, Joseph Thaddeus
January 18, 1925 - February 7, 2013
As a family, we mourn the loss of our beloved father Joseph Thaddeus (Kubikowski) Holden, who passed away after a brief illness at the age of 88. Son of Josef and Stanislawa (Golas) Kubikowski, he grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Joe earned a Bachelor's degree in chemistry from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (NYU) at the age of 18. Inducted into the U.S. Army, he participated in the V-2 Rocket program at the White Sands Missile Range, NM. After WWII, he enrolled in graduate studies at The University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his Ph.D. in 1951. In Madison, Joe married Nancy Lynn Collier, who has been by his side for the past 65 years. He completed post-doctoral work on an NIH Fellowship at Caltech in Pasadena, CA under Dr. Norm Horowitz, from 1951-1953. From 1953-1954, he worked as a biochemist at DuPont in Wilmington, DE. A pioneer in the field of Neurobiology Research, he joined The City of Hope in Duarte, CA in 1954. His laboratory was one of the earliest to establish the existence and role of transport proteins in moving amino acids across cell membranes. Previously, he discovered that a class of amino acids thought to have no biological function were essential and unique structural components of bacteria. Among numerous published papers, he edited "Amino acid pools: distribution, formation and function of free amino acids: Proceedings of a symposium on free amino acids held at the City of Hope Medical Center, Duarte, Calif, May 1961." He played a key role in establishing the Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope, and served as acting director from 1983 to 1993. Joe's love of photography is reflected in his collection of books on the subject, the contents of which can be found at josephholdenbooks.com. He was a man of great intellect with a sharp wit and expansive ideas. He was kind, generous and wise. We loved him very much and will miss him terribly. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, son Christopher (Leah Sweet) of Seattle, daughters Wendy of Ann Arbor, Kassana of Seattle, son Todd (Takako Tsuruki) of Sendai, Japan, seven grandchildren and his brother, Ronald Kubikowski of Summerfield, FL. Donations can be made in his name to the City of Hope, 1500 East Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010.