Top UH biochemistry professor dies
Theodore Winnick / 1912-2007
Former University of Hawaii professor Theodore Winnick was well known among his colleagues for his research in biochemistry.
He also had a reputation as a master chess player ready to take on all challengers at the Kuhio Beach tables where chess and card players gather.
Winnick, 94, died Wednesday in Honolulu.
He established the biochemistry and biophysics department at UH and was department chairman for several years before his retirement in 1970.
"He was well known as a biochemist," said Howard Mower, a professor in the now merged Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. "He contributed in many ways to research in how proteins are synthesized in all living cells."
Mower said, "What he was famous for after retirement, for many years he would go down to the beach and do pickup chess games."
Winnick formerly taught at the University of Iowa and at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, where he founded the biochemistry department, said his son, John Winnick. "He was world renowned for research on the building blocks of hormonal growth. A lot of scientists recognize that he was at the forefront of cancer research" in the 1960s.
He was born in Winnipeg, Canada. He earned his doctorate degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
He is survived by wife Monica, son John and four grandchildren.
Inurnment will be at 2:15 p.m. Monday at Diamond Head Memorial Park.