Margaret Albrink MD

Doctor Margaret Joralemon Albrink, formerly of Berkeley, California, died at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, on December 23, 2012. She was one of the rare women of her generation to pursue a career in academic medicine, and was noted as the first researcher to establish the significance of serum triglycerides in coronary artery disease. She developed this theory based on her extensive research at Yale University and later at West Virginia University. She held fast to this view at a time when the prevailing belief was that cholesterol was the primary risk factor for heart disease. Over the years her theories were verified and are now accepted by the wider scientific community.
The daughter of Dorothy Rieber Joralemon and Ira B. Joralemon, she was born in Warren, Arizona, Jan. 6, I92O. The family moved to Berkeley, California in 1923. Her father was a noted consulting mining engineer and geologist in San Francisco. Her mother was a well-known artist of children's portraits and abstractions.
First at Yale University, then at West Virginia University Dr. Albrink had a long and distinguished career as a researcher, teacher and clinician. She will be remembered not only her seminal lipid research and her participation in numerous medical and scientific organizations, but as a devoted and caring physician for the many patients she cared for over the years.
She was preceded in death by her husband Wilhelm S. Albrink, her son Peter Varick Albrink, her brother Peter Joralemon, Her grandparents Eugene and Mary Joralemon, Charles Henry Rieber and Winifred Rieber, and her parents. She is survived by her son Dr. Frederick H. Albrink of Louisville, her son Jonathan W. Albrink of New York City, and three grandchildren.
Arrangements are being made through the Hastings Funeral Company of Morgantown. A memorial service is being arranged through the West Virginia University School of Medicine. According to her wishes the family requests no donations.