Dr. Allan Ai Ichida, Ohio Wesleyan University Professor Emeritus of Botany-Microbiology, died suddenly at home on Sunday, September 25, 2005.
Allan was born on August 26, 1929 in Seattle, Washington, the first of three sons to Kikuko (May) Tominaga and Ainosuke Ichida, both Brigadier officers in the Salvation Army. He spent much of his childhood in San Francisco, California, where his parents ran an orphanage, before being relocated in 1942 to the Manzanar Japanese internment camp during World War II. Following the war, his family moved to Cleveland, OH, where Allan graduated from Collinwood High School. He earned his B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan in 1953, where he was a member of Beta Sigma Tau. He then attended the University of Tennessee, studying botany, mycology and bacteriology, and received his Masters Degree in 1955. Allan's studies then took him to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he received his Ph.D. in botany in 1960. While at the University of Wisconsin he met Jann Machotka in the bacteriology research laboratories. Allan and Jann were married in June of 1962.
Allan returned to Ohio Wesleyan in 1961 as a faculty member in the Department of Botany and Microbiology until he retired in 1995. He was a much admired professor of plant biology and mycology. His research interests were also pursued during several sabbaticals at the University of California in Berkeley. During his tenure at Ohio Wesleyan he served as president and advisor of the Ohio Branch of the American Society for Microbiology and on the Olentangy Scenic River Commission where his water quality research helped to secure the river's "Scenic River" status. Allan continued his research in the OWU Bohannan and Kraus nature preserves. He was a board member for the Salvation Army in Delaware, Ohio and was also an active council member of the Central Ohio American Youth Hostels. He was an enthusiastic canoeist, kayaker, cyclist, skier, and traveler. His love of travel was shared by his family, who cherished their extended camping trips, cruises and journeys to all parts of the world. The outdoors and driving through scenic countrysides were passions for Allan and he spent much of his life studying, preserving and enjoying the natural world.
He is survived by his wife, Jann, daughters Jennifer of Salt Lake City, Utah; Audrey (Steve Casper) and grandson Declan Alexander Casper, of Cheverly, Maryland; and brothers Shinji of Ogden, Utah and Grant of Cleveland, Ohio. His family remembers him as a kind man of quiet strength who always had a smile and a pat on the back for friends.
The family requests that donations be made to the Salvation Army, 252 Curtis Street, Delaware, Ohio 43015 (740-369-5301) and/or to Ohio Wesleyan University Botany and Microbiology O'Neal-Burns Botany Endowment Fund in memory of Allan A. Ichida. (sent to Dr. Jerry Goldstein, Ohio Wesleyan University, 90 S. Henry St., Delaware, OH 43015).
Dr. Ronald W. Treick, Miami University Professor Emeritus of Microbiology, died of congestive heart failure at McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, Ohio on Friday, December 16, 2005.
Ron was born on June 8, 1934, in Scotland, South Dakota, the son of Dr. Walter and Lena Treick. His father, a dentist, was of German descent and one of twelve brothers and sisters. During summers, Ron worked on his uncle’s farm where he learned the value of hard work and where his strong work ethic developed.
Ron was interested in a variety of subjects and took advanced placement courses in science and mathematics in high school. He was particularly influenced by his high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Elmer Lund, whom Ron held in highest esteem throughout his life.
At the University of South Dakota, Ron took chemistry and bacteriology courses and was fascinated by the wonders of microscopic organisms. He was influenced by his bacteriology professor, Dr. C.D. Cox, with whom he did a special research project. Ron’s interest in microbes finally led to his becoming president of the Bacteriology Club. After earning his B.A. degree in 1956 and his M.S. degree in 1957 at South Dakota, Ron worked as a research scientist at the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. He subsequently earned his Ph.D. at Indiana University and in 1965 joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at Miami University as an assistant professor and retired as a full professor in 1992.
When Ron was hired, the Department of Microbiology was seeking a candidate with a strong microbial chemistry emphasis to strengthen this area as it sought to gain accreditation as a doctoral department. Ron later became the first doctoral student advisor in a joint Ph.D. program with The Ohio State University. In turn, Ron was major professor for many doctoral students in the microbiology Ph.D. program at Miami. He was a member of the American Society for Microbiology and Sigma Xi, the scientific research society. His research involved biological mechanisms of growth inhibition and death of certain disease-causing bacteria by a specific drug. He and his graduate students published research articles and presented research papers at regional and national scientific meetings on several projects, including the effect of phenethyl alcohol on DNA and RNA synthesis in Escherichiacoli, an intestinal bacterium; the role of the bacterial cell wall on the entry of an antibiotic inside bacterial cells; and the role of plasmids in resistance of bacteria to antibiotics. Ron was the first faculty member to conduct recombinant DNA research at Miami, and he encouraged other faculty and graduate students to do the same.
While at Miami, Ron spent a summer at the University of Illinois-Urbana in order to upgrade his research using modern instrumentation, including ultracentrifugation and scintillation counting. He was very generous in sharing his expensive research equipment and unique reagents with colleagues and their students. Ron studied radiation biology and the safe handling of radioactive chemicals in a summer workshop at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. This experience prepared him to direct Miami’s first Radiation Safety Committee and helped establish guidelines for research involving radioactive chemicals and reagents. Ron chaired the University Instrumentation Committee and also served as University Sanitarian. In addition to serving on many other University committees, Ron monitored the quality of Oxford water for several years as a public health service to the City and the University.
Ron taught many undergraduate and graduate courses at Miami, including The Microbial World, Experimenting with Microbes, Microbial Physiology, Instrumentation for Research, Community Health, Applied and Industrial Microbiology, Microbiology Seminar and others. He very much enjoyed working with students, particularly in the research laboratory. His teaching commitment and style was very much influenced by his mentor at Indiana University, Dr. Walter Konetska, who had received the American Society for Microbiology’s Outstanding Teaching Award. Ron enjoyed staying in contact with his students after they graduated. He was especially proud that his graduates had entered many different professions, including teaching, industrial microbiology, pharmaceutical research, and as investigators in research institutes, research management, and for the F.B.I.
As a colleague, Ron exhibited the highest levels of collegiality; he was always willing to assist new faculty members, giving both teaching tips and assistance in setting up their research laboratories. Dr. Hooke, Chair of the Department of Microbiology, remembers him fondly from the time he introduced himself to her at an American Society of Microbiology meeting in Atlanta to give her a package of Miami materials in preparation for her interview visit the following week. She remembers too the years she spent in the office next to Ron in the department. She says Ron was always available for advice on everything from hand-grading Scantrons at the window to 403(b) retirement plans, organizing the furniture in her office and digital-analog philosophies.
Ron had played basketball in high school and his interest in sports remained strong throughout his years at Miami. He was very proud of Miami’s basketball and football players who did well in the NBA (Ron Harper & Wally Szczerbiak) and the NFL (Ben Roethlisberger) teams. He also enthusiastically followed Indiana University basketball.
Ron was an avid philatelist and active member of the Middletown Stamp Club and in retirement also joined the Hamilton Stamp Club. He and his wife Mina were interested in antiques and enjoyed doing research on them. They traveled to country auction sites to review potential items to be auctioned and to decide which items they would bid on at the auction.
During his retirement years, Ron and Mina would get together several times each year with longtime microbiology faculty members and other friends for informal lunches or dinners. Ron was especially fond of these gatherings where he could update everyone on the latest in stamp collecting, the world of antiques, and the successes of Miami and Indiana basketball players and his graduate students.
Ron was a quiet and peaceful man whose personality extended friendship to all people, and colleagues affirm that they never heard him speak a harsh word. He graciously assisted new faculty members of the Department of Microbiology in becoming acquainted with Oxford and surrounding communities. Ron quietly gave support to organizations and museums in his childhood state of South Dakota. He was confirmed in the German Reform Church (United Church of Christ) and was a member of the Oxford United Methodist Church.
Ron is survived by Mina, his devoted wife of fifty years; twin sons Scott of Oxford and Stephen of Safety Harbor, Florida; mother-in-law, Adella Wold, of Scotland, South Dakota; and many cousins in Scotland and throughout the United States.
Ron’s many students, colleagues and friends are grateful for his years of friendship and for his many contributions to the Department of Microbiology, to Miami University, and to the Oxford community.