Robert Boston Hurlbert

Hurlbert
Robert Boston
Hurlbert, Professor of Biochemistry, outdoorsman, much-loved husband, father and grandfather, died aged 85 on October 17, 2011 after a long illness.
Dr. Hurlbert was chief of the Section of Nucleotide Metabolism at U.T. MD Anderson Hospital from 1962 to 1985. His research into DNA synthesis helped the discovery of anti-cancer drugs. He wrote many classic scientific papers, and was a dedicated teacher and mentor to students in the U.T. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Bob was born in David City, Nebraska on August 9, 1926. A self-professed "country boy", he embarked on a cosmopolitan journey after earning his PhD at the University of Wisconsin in 1952, landing at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in 1954. There he did chemisty research and met Janina Patmalnieks, with whom he had fifty-six years of happy marriage.
A keen huntsman and master of the bow-and-arrow, Bob also loved the study of natural history. His huge intellect gave him voracious appetite for knowledge; as a retiree, he taught computing skills to other seniors at HAL-PC, and taught himself Scandinavian languages, American history, and evolutionary biology. He always applied scientific principles, and was handy in all things mechanical and electrical. He was an egregious punster and prolific limerick-writer.
He is survived by Janina, their four children, Robert, Anya, Eric and Marc, and six grand-children, Matthew and Iris Ridley, Alan and Ryan Hurlbert, and Jacob and Justin Hurlbert, and by his sister Edith Eileen Hurlbert In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.