Gerald N. "Gerry" Callahan

1946 - 2020

Gerald "Gerry" N. Callahan

Fort Collins - August 6, 2020, Gerald Neil Callahan "purposely peeled his fingers loose from the grasses and the hollow stones and fell into the stars." He was 73.

Gerry Callahan was a Renaissance man - loving family man, award-winning writer/poet, gifted immunologist, inspirational teacher, insightful mentor, fierce friend. He had a limitless capacity for expansive thought and the ability to combine his love of science and creative writing into philosophy. He believed the stories we tell are infectious agents with the power to heal or destroy.

Callahan's own story began in Coffeyville, Kan. Born to Gerald "Wayne" Callahan and June Perry Callahan in 1946, he was the third of four children. In early childhood, the family relocated to Bountiful, Utah, and Gerry received his BS and PhD - in experimental pathology - from the University of Utah. Leaving graduate school in 1974, Dr. Callahan pursued biomedical research, first as part of a Nobel Prize-winning team at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, Calif., and since 1984 in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University where he was a professor of immunology and public understanding of science. In recognition of his literary contributions to popular scientific literature, he received a joint appointment in the Department of English at CSU in 2004. He was a well-loved professor in CSU's Honors program and was a major contributor to the program's creative design. He was an unpretentiously brilliant teacher of courses on the construction of self, human and animal disease, and scientific and creative writing.

Callahan received numerous awards and recognitions for his scientific research, writing, and teaching, including three National Research Service Awards, designation as a Leukemia Society of America Scholar, a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship for creative nonfiction, a Pulitzer Prize nomination, CSU's 2006 Willard O. Eddy Award for excellence in interdisciplinary teaching, an Outstanding Science Faculty Award in 2012, Honors Professor of the Year Award in 2019, and the 2019 College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Teaching Award.

During his distinguished career, he published more than 50 scientific papers, a veterinary immunology textbook and a virtual textbook. As a creative nonfiction author and poet, he published more than 70 poems and essays and four popular science books exploring the processes of being human.

Callahan is preceded in death by his parents Wayne and June Callahan and his sister Cathi Butler. He is survived by his wife of nearly 40 years Virginia "Gina" Mohr-Callahan of Fort Collins, son Patrick Callahan of Fort Collins, and daughter Jennifer Callahan of Scottish Borders, Scotland. He is also survived by his brother Michael Callahan of Albuquerque, N.M., and his sister Patricia Larkin of Big Water, Utah.

In lieu of flowers or cards, Gerry Callahan's family urges you to pay attention - to the "copper-bottomed clouds," the "red coil of the wind," the "iron crust of the desert," and the "careless dance of birds." You'll find him there.

Memorial services will be held at later dates/various locations as COVID-19 allows. To read more about this extraordinary man, please visit the online memorial tribute at www.allnuttftcollins.com to share a story about Gerry or leave a message of condolence for the family.