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375 Mount Pleasant Road
Toronto, Ontario
Dr. Andrew Becker Obituary
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Andrew John Becker on Sunday, August 2, 2015 at the age of 80. He leaves behind his loving wife Clelia of 47 wonderful years of marriage. Proud father to Alexandra (James Sielaff) and Monica Anne (William McKee). Adored grandfather to Zofia Sielaff. Dear brother to Mary Wiseman. Family, friends and colleagues will remember him with great fondness. Dr. Becker will also be remembered as a pioneer in the world of Science. His early work helped identify stem cells and his later work on viral morphogenesis was seminal to the development of recombinant DNA technology, tools which may be indispensable to diagnose and treat many diseases. Visitation will be held on Monday, August 10th from 5-8 p.m. and on Tuesday, August 11th from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. followed by a Chapel Service at 1:30 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Visitation Centre (375 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto). For online condolences please visit
www.etouch.ca
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Memories and Condolences
for Dr. Andrew Becker
Sponsored by Alexandra Becker Sielaff.
13 Entries
Zofia Sielaff
March 7, 2025
I am inspired by you everyday grandpa. I have grown up since 2015, and I dedicate all of my research and study to you and Babcia. I hope I can make you proud.
Love, love, love always,
Zosia
edward king
December 22, 2020
In loving memory of a wonderful person. We will love you and miss you always.
Tak Mak
March 1, 2017
I am so sorry I have missed this announcement about the passing of Andy. I always will remember the kind and bright Andy Becker at the OCI. I used to go to see him in his office and asked him for his opinions on different scientific matters. A scholar, gentleman and great guy!
December 23, 2016
Sandra Becker Sielaff
August 31, 2015
I love you, Dad.
As you told me, 'The body is weak but the spirit endures.'
Love, love, love to you always.
Herb Wiseman
August 31, 2015
Once, near the end of his career when our families were visiting together, I asked Andy what he was working on. He told me that he was learning how to build a virus. I cheekily said that I wished he would learn how to destroy them! He said "Once I know how to build them I will know how to destroy them."
He also brought to my attention how cameras are for people who are right-handed. After his first stroke he was unable to use his right arm and hand so rigged a tripod type of support for his wheelchair and scooter so that he could still take photos with his left hand. He became incredibly proficient with photoshop manipulating the images he photographed from around his community into the most beautiful pictures.
I also admired him greatly for his intelligence and kindness. His talents were numerous and varied. His contributions to science were huge. It was an honour to know him.
rachel higgins
August 11, 2015
Andy was my PhD mentor and my good friend. He was a shy man, kind and generous. There are many good things to say about Andy but I will only mention the ones I admired most about him: a great scientist, an excellent mentor and a caring friend. I will miss you Andy. Rachel
Zofia Sielaff
August 10, 2015
My loving grandpa, I love you. Toronto is not the same without you.
You mean so much to me. I miss you. Rest in peace.
Love,
Zofia
Margaret Maizel
August 10, 2015
Andy worked quietly, always gentle, always self-effacing. Always dedicated to that exquisite goal that was so much harder for anyone else to reach. He gave way more to the world than the world will ever know, because he never really told the story as it included himself ..and I have always believed that somehow, in his special way, he quite enjoyed that irony.....I know too, though, that it made him chuckle.
Dr. Helios Murialdo
August 10, 2015
Andrew (Andy) Becker
The scientist
In September 2010, The Globe and Mail published an article about the likely Nobel prize winners for that year. Thomas Reuters, who had been issuing predictions since 2002, named Ernest McCulloch and James Till, from the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto and Ontario-born Douglas Coleman from Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Me., as contenders for the prestigious award.
McCulloch and Till were the first to confirm the existence of stem cells, back in 1961. Since then, stem cells research expanded all over the world and in the last decade, stem cell therapy has become very common.
One of the most cited papers establishing the existence of stem cells is:
Becker, A.J.; McCulloch, E.A.; Till, J.E. (1963). "Cytological demonstration of the clonal nature of spleen colonies derived from transplanted mouse marrow cells". Nature 197: 4524.
Although this work did not win the Nobel Price , Andy was already doing pioneer biological research more than half a century ago.
Then came Andy's years at the Medical Sciences Building, where he and Marvin Gold deciphered the main facets of the mechanism of DNA packaging in bacteriophage lambda. This may seem to some like something of mere academic interest, but, the study of apparently useless subjects often results in extremely useful techniques. As I shall explain later, the study of DNA packaging inaugurated the dawn of genetic engineering. I will come back to this below.
Thus, both fields of Andy's endeavour, -pure science-, turned out with time, to be extremely useful to mankind.
The Human being, the friend, the colleague
I first met Andy in 1967 at the Ontario Cancer Institute and Department of Medical Biophysics, then located in the Princess Margaret Hospital, in 500 Sherbourne St. Thanks to his impending draft as an MD for the Vietnam War, he had just returned hurriedly from the lab of Jerry Hurwitz at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. I had just arrived from Chile, to start my Ph. D. studies under the supervision of Lou Siminovitch. Two years later Lou invented the Department of Medical Cell Biology (today Department of Molecular Genetics) and the Toronto phage group moved to the Medical Sciences Building. During those years, Andy was one of my most appreciated scientific advisers.
After a brief stay in my native Chile, I returned back to the Department in 1973. There we started a collaborative adventure that went on for next 26 years. He trusted my genetics and I trusted his biochemistry. We published many papers and reviews together. I still remember the hours that we spent together writing those papers. He had to be careful not only with each sentence for its scientific rigour, but he also had to translate my Spanglish. Gosh! He was so patient bringing my crazy hypotheses down to earth and making my crooked English sentences understandable.
Every morning I dropped into his office to see the results of the biochemistry part of our experiments. Then we discussed the results and planned the next experiment. He puffed a few times his pipe, but most of the time just bit it.
In those years, only two labs in the world new how to package DNA. So people came from other labs in the USA to learn how to do it. Andy had his lab doors open for all of them, personally teaching them how to do it. And, of course, many scientists in the Research Institute of the Hospital for Sick Children (affiliated with our Department) wanted to clone human disease genes . They were also provided with space and advice in Andy's lab. So it was a happy coincidence, that when the first human disease genes were being cloned, the tools to do it were ready just across University Avenue. This coincidence was crucial for the cloning of the Cystic fibrosis, Duchene muscular dystrophy and Fanconi anaemia, among others genes. I feel that this contribution of Andy's lab in the first cloning of several of the human disease genes in the world has not been adequately recognized. So while others made the covers of scientific journals, Andy was happy just for having been of help.
Andy was a gentle person, blessed with an incredible capacity to understand everybody around him. I do not think I ever heard him criticize anyone. He was always willing to listen, as if his time was of no importance. I learned from him science and humanity.
Finally, I would like to go back to stem cells. This spring I went through a treatment for osteoarthritis in both knees. This therapy involved the extraction of bone marrow from my hip bone, the separation and reproduction of my own stem cells in plastic bottles, and the inoculation into each of my knees with about 60 million cells. These cells will hopefully differentiate and give rise to chondrocytes, which are the cells that produce cartilage. Andy's work on the discovery of stem cells half a century ago was fundamental in bringing this treatment to reality.
I was so lucky to have known him, collaborate with him and have him as a friend. He made my life better.
Helios Murialdo, Ph.D.
August 9, 2015
Andy was the lead author, with Ernest McCulloch and myself as co-authors, on a highly-cited paper published in Nature in 1963 (Feb 2;197:452-454). It was a key contribution to our early experimental investigations of stem cells. Although he already had an M.D. degree, Andy was involved in his Ph.D. program at the time. His combination of talent and persistence were what was needed to complete this challenging and innovative research. I'm still amazed at what he accomplished. I doubt if anyone else, at that time, could have succeeded in the way that Andy did.
Andy in his office
Paul Sadowski
August 9, 2015
A pioneer scientist. He made key discoveries in Stem Cell research, DNA enzymology and baceriophage DNA packaging. The latter, with Marvin Gold, was key to the cloning of human disease genes such as those for Cystic Fibrosis and Muscular Dystrophy. Always modest to a fault. A dear colleague and friend. He will be greatly missed.
August 8, 2015
Showing 1 - 13 of 13 results
Memorial Events
for Dr. Andrew Becker
Funeral services provided by:
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Visitation Centre, Crematorium and Mausoleum375 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, ON M4T 2V8