The Boston Globe - 13.08.2019

TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019 The Boston Globe C7

Obituaries

By Martin Weil WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON — Kary Mullis, who shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry for devising a technique vital in DNA research and technology, died Wednesday in Newport Beach, Calif. Dr. Mullis, one of the most unconventional winners of the award, was 74. The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Nancy Cosgrove Mullis. The technique for which Dr. Mullis shared the Nobel in 1993 was known as polymerase chain reaction, called PCR for short, and it enabled scientists to make millions or billions of copies of a single tiny segment of the DNA molecule. Often described as a major milestone of 20th century biochemistry and molecular biology, the PCR technique opened the way for a wide variety of studies and applications of DNA, the celebrated molecule that lies at the foundations of life. In only one of many applications, PCR was used by evolu- tionary biologists to study the minuscule quantities of DNA discovered in the fossils of an- cient species. The possibilities suggestedbythistechniquein- spired the creation of dinosaurs in such fictional films as ‘‘Juras- sic Park’’ (1993). Widely acknowledged for its significance, PCR not only re- warded Dr. Mullis with the most coveted prize in science, but it provided a platform that he bestrode with relish for his free-spirited, often quirky ideas and lifestyle. A writer, a surfer, and a rest- less, questing personality who once turned from science to manage a bakery, Dr. Mullis published a memoir titled ‘‘Dancing Naked in the Mind Field’’ (1998). It embellished his reputa- tion for happily ignoring the normal strictures, cautions, and conventions that were ob- served by others in science and scholarship, particularly those at the exalted levels of Nobel winners. Among the exploits and ad- ventures for which he was known was experimentation with LSD, the hallucinogenic drug. This revelation reported- ly made the defense team rep- resenting O.J. Simpson, the for-

mer football standout acquit- ted in 1995 on charges of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, decide against calling him as an expert witness. Although the trial has often been depicted as a courtroom circus, Dr. Mullis once told an interviewer that it was feared his appearance might have only made the proceedings seem more of one. A 1966 chemistry graduate of Georgia Tech, who earned a doctorate in 1973 from the University of California Berke- ley, he appeared in many ways to be one of the most promi- nent representatives in the scientific community of the mind- set of the counterculture cen- tered in California in the 1960s. In his Nobel lecture, he told theassembleddignitariesthat ‘‘six years in the biochemistry department didn’t change my mind about DNA, but six years of Berkeley changed my mind about almost everything else.’’ He seemed skeptical of much conventional wisdom, including theories that were widely held in science. Doubts about whether climate change was man-made, or whether HIV caused AIDS, helped make him seem an outlier in the scientific establishment. In addition, his apparent en- thusiasm for astrology and seeming fondness for such ideas as astral projection and

the possibility of abduction by aliens also led his scientific peers to look at him askance. Such flouting of scientific norms led one colleague to re- portedly characterize him as an untamed genius. Kary Banks Mullis was born Dec. 28, 1944, in Lenoir, N.C., and started life near the Blue Ridge Mountains, where his forebears had roots. When he was about 5, the family moved to Columbia, S.C. In high school there, he demonstrated an interest in science and scientific explora- tion by launching rockets, pow- ered by homemade chemical fuel. In his Nobel lecture, he described with great gusto his early rocket trials. ‘‘In one of our last experi- ments before we became so in- terested in the maturing young women around us that we would not think deeply about rocket fuels for another 10 years, we blasted a frog a mile into the air and got him back alive. ‘‘In another, we inadvertent- ly frightened an airline pilot, who was preparing to land a DC-3 at Columbia airport. Our mistake.’’ In the same lecture, he appeared scornful on the rules and restrictions of the current era that might deter such after- hours experimentation in the school laboratory. ‘‘We spent many an after-

noon there tinkering. No one got hurt and no lawsuits result- ed. They wouldn’t let us in there now. Today, we would be thought of as a menace to society.’’ A biographical sketch de- scribes his family and his boy- hood days in detail. But after that, he wrote, in what seemed a clear reminder of his whimsy, ‘‘The rest of my life has passed quite suddenly. Around ten or twelve I fell into the inevitable logarithms of time. It seems to go faster and faster. I wonder now why we have to have Christmas so often.’’ After receiving a doctorate in biochemistry from Berkeley, Mullis did research at other universities before joining Ce- tus Corp., then a San Francisco Bay area biotechnology firm, where he said he ‘‘was working when I invented PCR.’’ He later became the chief of molecular biology for another corporation, Xytronyx Inc., in San Diego. Subsequently, he has been described as freelanc- ing as a consultant. His marriages to Richards Haley, Gail Hubbell, and Cyn- thia Gibson ended in divorce. Besides his wife, to whom he was married for 22 years, survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Louise Ols- en; two sons from his third marriage, Christopher Mullis and Jeremy Mullis; two broth- ers; and two grandchildren.

By Adam Bernstein WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON — Jim Cul- lum, a jazz cornetist, band- leader, and educator who became a flamekeeper of traditional jazz and whose San Antonio-based ensemble became a mainstay of public radio on the weekly program ‘‘Riverwalk Jazz,’’ died Sunday at his home in San Antonio. He was 77. The cause was an apparent heart attack, said his booking agent, Steve Frumkin. Even as a teenager growing up in Texas in the 1950s, when his peers did themselves up in greasy, ducktail hairdos and twisted their hips to Elvis, Mr. Cullum was drawn to his father’s collection of 78s featur- ing Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke and other Jazz Age luminaries. At 14, he saved up $7 to buy his first cornet — a beat-up 1920 mod- el he spotted in the window of a pawn shop — and didn’t look back, except in his musical repertoire. As an enterprising youth, he formed a quartet that played outside a Dairy Queen. ‘‘We got four lines of credit,’’ he once recalled, ‘‘and got paid in ice cream cones, milk- shakes, and hamburgers.’’ Most prominently through the San Antonio-based Jim Cul- lum Jazz Band, he devoted his career to resurrecting music popularized by the likes of Bei- derbecke, Armstrong, King Ol- iver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Sidney Bechet. Mr. Cullum threw a musical life jacket to a genre nearly submerged by later jazz styles, including big band, bebop, and jazz-rock fusion, not to mention rock, rap, and gener- ations of pop. Jazz scholar Dan Morgen-

stern said that Mr. Cullum, whom he called a top-flight musician, was not alone in seeking to preserve traditional jazz but that his prominence on public radio put him in the pantheon of ‘‘trad-jazz’’ band- leaders. ‘‘The skill lies in not making the music sound like a repro- duction of an antiquated style, but in keeping it lively and fun, and he did that,’’ Morgenstern said. ‘‘You keep it alive by making it sound alive.’’ Mr. Cullum, who had long operated the Landing jazz club on San Antonio’s River Walk promenade, attracted an all- star lineup of musicians including clarinetist Allan Vaché and pianist John Sheridan, as well as guest players such as pianist Dick Hyman, trumpet- er Clark Terry, vibraphonist Li- onel Hampton, and clarinetist Bob Wilber. Theband’sshowswerefea- tured on regional radio outlets before Public Radio Interna- tional distributed the weekly series ‘‘Riverwalk: Live From the Landing’’ (later renamed ‘‘Riverwalk Jazz”) from 1989 to 2012. In addition to the airtime, the band played the festival circuit and had engagements at high-profile venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Washington’s Kennedy Center. The group released dozens of albums, including a 1987 instrumental version of the Gershwin folk opera ‘‘Por- gy and Bess,’’ which Mr. Cul- lum said was his favorite recording. Reviewing the album for The Washington Post, crit- ic Mike Joyce praised its ‘‘sub- tlety and verve.’’ ‘‘We’re not preservation- ists,’’ Mr. Cullum once told The Dallas Morning News. ‘‘It’s just good, timeless music. I

love it and hope we can breathe new life into it.’’ James Albert Cullum Jr. was born in Dallas on Sept. 20, 1941, and moved to San Anto- nio at 12. His father, who ran his family’s wholesale grocery business, also was a reedman who jammed with visiting musicians including Jack Teagar- den and Jimmy Dorsey. In 1962, father and son formed what was then known as the Happy Jazz Band and, the next year, opened the Landing, one of the first music clubs on the River Walk. ‘‘It was very charming,’’ Mr. Cul- lum later told the San Antonio Express-News. ‘‘You could squeeze 200 people in there, break all the fire codes.’’ The club moved several times before relocating in 1982 to the new Hyatt Regen- cy, along the River Walk. Mr. Cullum, who renamed the band after his father’s death in 1973, sold the Landing in 2009 and stopped recording new ‘‘Riverwalk Jazz’’ pro- grams in 2012. Past shows are archived online through the Stanford University Libraries at riverwalkjazz.stanford.edu. (Mr. Cullum was on the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Work- shop, a leading forum for jazz education, from 1993 to 2005.) He continued leading a band until his death, perform- ing several times a week. A list of survivors was not immedi- ately available. ‘‘We’ve done well, and we’ve had our successes,’’ Mr. Cullum told the Morning News. ‘‘But I don’t think of it as hitting the big time. We’re just doing what we’ve always done. I’d be doing it no matter what. It’s like what Louis Arm- strong said, ‘Don’t tell no one, but I’d do it all for nothing.’ ”

KaryMullis;unorthodoxNobellaureatefueledDNAwork

ASSOCIATED PRESS/1993 Dr. Mullis was known for his free-spirited ways and quirky theories.

JimCullum,flamekeeperoftraditionaljazz

ASSOCIATED PRESS BEAUMONT, Texas — The businessman who founded the national restaurant chain Ja- son’s Deli more than 40 years ago in Texas has died. A Jason’s Deli statement says Joe Tortorice Jr., founder and chairman of the board, died Saturday at age 70. A company spokeswoman says Mr. Tortorice had battled cancer. The Beaumont-based company says Mr. Tortorice was the grandson of Italian immi- grants and it was his father’s investment in a little sandwich shop that inspired him to open his own restaurant. From a single location that opened in Beaumont in 1976, Jason’s Deli now has almost 300 locations across the Unit- ed States. Mr. Tortorice’s oldest son, Jay, who inspired the company’s name, said in the statement he’ll remember his father for being ‘‘a dedicated family man, business mentor and inspiration to all who knew him.’’

JoeTortorice,70;

foundedchain

ofJason’sDeli

JASON’S DELI Jason’s Deli founder Joe Tortorice Jr. started the chain 40 years ago.

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of Vero Beach, FL, PA and MA. Born May 22, 1942 and entered into eternal rest August 5, 2019. Son of Herbert Viscott, R.Ph, RIP 1981, proprietor, Sherman Drug, Roxbury, MA and his irreplaceable, wonderful, nurturing mother Jeannette Smith Viscott, RIP

He was preceded in heaven by
his best friend and brother, Stephen
David Viscott, age seven. Allen and
his devoted wife and health advocate,
Maureen Cashen Viscott, shared 45
years of marriage. Allen’s sister, Linda
H. (Viscott) Perrotta, her husband
Gerald and sons, Adam and David from
Las Vegas, NV mourn their loss. Allen
lived with his beloved Aunt Ada Smith
Rubman and husband, Uncle Haskell
and his dearly loved cousin Myra and
brother Jeffrey whenever there was a
family health crisis between Newton
and Milton. He is loved and admired by
his many cousins. Raymond and Nancy
(Cashen) Rampino, his nieces, Kristen
and Courtney, and devoted godson,
Gregory, are his loving family through
marriage.
Allen was a graduate of Newton
North High School, Class of 1959. He
completed a BS in pharmacy and chem-
istry at Massachusetts College of Phar-
macy in June, 1963. With a background
in retail pharmacy since childhood, he
choose the challenges of clinical phar-
macy for his career path. He returned
to Massachusetts College of Pharmacy
to enroll in the first evening masters
program in hospital pharmacy adminis-
tration and clinical therapeutics which
he completed in June, 1983. He was a
preceptor and mentor to may pharmacy
students.
With managed care on the horizon
in medicine, he simultaneously
pursued a masters degree in business
administration at Suffolk University,
Sawyer Business School, graduating in
February, 1984. In recognition of high
scholastic attainment, Allen was elected
a member of Delta Mu Delta, National
Honor Society in business administra-
tion and invested with the insignia of
the golden key.
Allen was the Senior Warden of
Brotherhood Lodge, AF & AM. In 1975,
Allen was part of a ground breaking
team and he physically moved the
Jimmy Fund Pharmacy to the newly
constructed Sidney Farber Cancer
Center, later to become the Dana Farber
Cancer Center. He was an intricate con-
tributor in establishing the adult and
pediatric cancer clinics, both inpatient
and outpatient. It was cutting edge
oncology pharmacy. He spent countless
hours “under the hood” preparing
chemo medicine. His patients were his
life purpose. Allen excelled in pharmacy
and was mandated by his personal
physician to retire due to his compro-
mised health. He lived his medicine as
he practiced it.
He was a warrior, battling though
thirty five surgeries, the true testament
to his faith in medicine and the human
spirit.ABostonsportsfanaticandana-
lyst by age seven, his brilliant dad had
educated him in every play, every pen-
alty and the curse of the Bambino. He
has his exquisite companions, his feline
friends, Butterscotch “The King,” Ms.
Marshmellow Fluff waiting in heaven.
By his personal request, Mr. Orange
Marmalade, his forever friend, the only
cat to ever ride the auto train, will be
by his side. For the past nine years, Ms.
Twinkle Toes has been his passengeron
his rolling walker, affectionately called
“The animal transport.”
Allen, may the road rise up to meet
you, and may Yahweh hold you in the
palm of his hand, until we meet again.
Services in the Chapel at Sharon
Memorial Park, 40 Dedham Street,
Sharon, on Thursday, August 15, 2019
at 12:00 noon.

VISCOTT, Allen Martin M.Pharm., M.B.A., R.PH

Levine Chapels, Brookline 617-277-8300 http://www.levinechapel.com

WILKERSON, Margaret Harris Age 76, died July 20, 2019, after a val- iant fight with cancer, in San Francisco, CA, where she had recently moved from Boston. Margaret was from Montgomery, AL. After several moves, she lived in the Boston area, working as an administra- tor in the Department of Anesthesia at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. Her children were the source of her pride. Granddaughter Frances, age five, brought her deep satisfaction and great joy. She comforted those in distress and prepared gourmet meals from a near- encyclopedic knowledge of cooking, she loved gardening, sewing, dogs, and cats. Good company and close friends triggered humor and mischief. She was, of all things, a good friend. Proud emissary of her alma mater, the University of Alabama, especially of its football team, The Crimson Tide, she had a life-long Magnolia accent, as well as an appreciation of the best of Southern gifts, people, food, music and Southern literature. She was predeceased by her daughter, Frances Harris Wilkerson. Survivors include her daughter Margaret (Meg) Makalou, son-in-law Sambou Makalou, granddaughter Frances Siga Makalou, her former husband and best friend, Steve Wilkerson, all of San Francisco, and a host of cousins. Memorial gifts may be made to American Cancer Society, MSPCA- Angell, or the animal shelter of your choice. Memorial at 2:00 PM, Saturday, Au- gust 17 at St, Paul’s Episcopal Church, 15 Saint Paul St., Brookline, MA 02446.

WHALLEY, Edward H. Jr.

Of Lynnfield, August 9. Beloved husband of Mary Rae (Keefe) Whalley. Lov- ing father of Edward K. Whalley of Georgetown, Ellen P. Eckenrode and husband Jim of Newton, Elizabeth A. Mattes and husband Jeff of Doylestown, PA, and Kenneth B. Whalley and wife Beth of Topsfield. Also survived by his 7 grandchildren, Tiffany, Kate, Henry, Adam, Ava, Jackson, and Lauren. Fu- neral Mass to be celebrated on Friday, August 16 in St. James Church, 156 Federal St., Salem at 11AM. Visitation for relatives and friends will be held at the McDonald Funeral Home, 19 Yale Ave., WAKEFIELD, on Thursday from 4-7PM. Interment, St. Mary’s Cemetery, Salem. Memorial donations may be made in Edward’s honor to the New England Professional Golfer’s Associa- tion (NEPGA) Foundation, 81C Shrews- bury Street, Boylston, MA 01505.

The Boston Globe - 13.08.2019

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