Deceased February 28, 2015

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50th Reunion Book Entry


In Memory

Amherst lost a great friend, and the world of biotechnology a major contributor, when Bernard Witholt passed away from pancreatic cancer late in February.

Bernie was born in Holland in 1941. After the war, the family left for Brazil. They lived in Sao Paolo, later Rio. In between, Bernie spent a year in a Mennonite colony and another back in Holland. The family immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1959, where Bernie became a self-described "multilingual puzzle" to his high school guidance counselor. The counselor initially steered him toward agriculture--but not before seeking a favor of Amherst's Dean Wilson. The young Dutchman (who had never heard of Amherst) was interviewed, admitted, and awarded a scholarship in a single day in April, 1960.

Friends and classmates remember Bernie's optimism, his cheerfulness, and above all his curiosity. He majored in biology and was a stalwart of the varsity crew, a sport that engaged him for the rest of his life. He took his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins, where he roomed with Tom Jacobs and Pete Hauschka. He then married Pete's sister Margaret and embarked for a post-doc at UCSD, where their daughter Anna was born. His professional life thereafter was in Europe, first at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and, since 1992, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

The research groups Bernie led at both institutions are credited with foundational work in microbial biotechnology. He was widely recognized by his peers as among the most original, provocative, and productive people in their field, a teacher and mentor as well as an innovator. He described his broad interest as the "potential of biosystems...to do real chemistry". That led him into environmental biotechnology, biocatalysis, petrochemical biorefineries, biofeedstocks, bioplastics. He thought all the time about useful applications for his ideas, and possible ways of achieving industrial-scale production. He advocated for his ideas in academic, government, and industry circles. He was a visionary with boundless enthusiasm for his work, and practical approaches toward completing and promoting it.

In 2007, the Dutch royal family recognized Bernie's work with its highest civilian honor, The Order of the Netherlands Lion (De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw), which is given for exceptional achievements in art, science, and literature. He was cited mostly for his work in Groningen, where in addition to his research and teaching he was the initiator of a science park and several startups. He is probably our only knighted classmate.

Bernie retired briefly in 2006, but as long as he had a lab to work in and colleagues to interact with he could not stay away. He is survived by his second wife, Renske Heddema, five siblings, Anna, and his grandchildren Skye and Luna.

The pictures are of Bernie with Skye (left) and Luna, and with the "professors' crew" not so many years ago. He helped organize friendly rowing competitions among faculty groups from Swiss, German, and Dutch universities.

Peter Wintersteiner ’64
Roger Mills ’64
Doug Reilly ’64

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Bernard Witholt '64

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Bernard Witholt '64
50th Reunion

Amherst introduced me to rowing and to Roger Mills, my summer '63 double sculls mate at Vesper Boat Club, in Philadelphia.

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Bernard Witholt
Amherst also set the stage for a Hopkins PhD and a postdoc at UCSD, after which we, Margaret Hauschka, our daughter Anna and I, made our way to Holland for a few years. Or so we thought. I was quite happy in the Groningen Chemistry Department. I was less successful in my life with Maggie, however, and we divorced in 1984. Anna studied Chinese and Psychology in Leiden. She later started a 5 Rhythms dance therapy studio, also in Leiden. About 10 years ago, now with Vince and two kids (photo 2), Anna moved her studio to Camden, Maine.

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Bernard Witholt
My parents never stayed anywhere for long. The same goes for my generation. My 5 sibs (photo 3) are or have been: a Merchant Marine captain hauling really big stuff around the globe forever; a Jehovah's Witness missionary in Kenya and Tanzania, even longer; an airline manager in Tokyo, Dubai, Amsterdam, with his own agency in Massachusetts and now bankrupt after he spent a lifetime giving all the neighbors whatever they seemed to need; a master carpenter living and working in California, Fiji, Costa Rica, Florida, always near the surf; a sister moving here and there and now settled in Holland.

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Bernard Witholt
I owed it to the family not to stay in Groningen forever, and in 1992 moved to the ETH Institute of Biotechnology in Zurich, now married to Renske Heddema, a journalist, who for the past 20 years has been explaining the workings of the Swiss system to the Dutch and Belgians and vice-versa.

I had excellent students in both Groningen and Zurich, have met many people in various chemistry, pharma, agro, food and oil industries interested in biotechnology and biobased processes, somet of this touching on topics that we, Amherst '64, have lately been discussing via our AMHERST CHAT.

Life was fine until 1999, when I began having ventricular tachycardias, heart beating at 240 bpm for hours on end. I started with amiodarone, a drug which I abandoned within a few weeks, given its many undesirable side-effects. After a year I had an ICD implanted. It shocked me often and I slowed down considerably.

I became a 90 year old, with Swiss octagenarians dashing by as I tried to stroll in the woods. The family starting mumbling about wheel chairs, half time at the Institute...could not make plans with others, was unable to contribute. No longer dared imagine the future; lost my fantasy and my vision. Using no drug simply did not work.

Mid 2000 we tried flecainide (Tambocor). Not the specialist's favorite, given its potential toxicity. Amazingly after the first 100 mg I came alive again.
The usual pressure around my heart, requiring a pause, rest, before I could walk another 20 or 50m, and then again rest...what had happened to that???? Magic!!!

Coming back did take time. I bought a Concept rowing machine in 2003; lots of graphs and numbers, learned how my heart reacts to different efforts. In 2004 the ETH formed a Professoren Achter to take on a 7 German Technical Universities in their yearly sprints. I began to row again.

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Bernard Witholt
We went to Munich that summer and beat the 7 German crews. Ah, life was good again. For 2005 we invited the German Tus as well as my Dutch Delft TU friends to join in the fun, now here in Zurich. We ended on top again (photo 4).Things went wrong sometimes. In 2006 my ICD and associated electrodes appeared infected. My Zurich friends found this hard to believe; I did not look the part. I visited Roger, who produced data pointing to best ICD and electrode extraction options. This procedure was ultimately followed in Zurich.

Installing a third ICD did not seem necessary to me. Dangerous to go without, according to specialists. I understood their concerns, but prior to infection, I had experienced a steady improvement of my heart regulation system over a four year period. There was significant repair after every undesirable episode.
And then, my one major and totally stupid mistake in late 2012.

I had joined the Pofessoren boat again in 2011, now 20 years older than the crew average. I felt good in our sprints, but wanted more power.

For 2012, I focused on 500m power stretches. This worked, but my heart regulatory system behaved differently from what I saw during 45-50 min endurance rows, especially during the resting and relaxing phase, where the system now tended to chaos, heart rates badly controlled.

Net result: cardiac arrest after major effort in the Eight, two weeks before the springs. Luck once more, an ambulance crew arrived in time to bring me back.