About Abe
Abraham Eisenstark, Sept. 5, 1919 – Aug. 28, 2018
Abraham Eisenstark, emeritus research director, Cancer Research Center, and professor emeritus of the University of Missouri Department of Biological Studies, Columbia, Missouri, died Aug. 28, 2018, a few days short of his 99th birthday. Before taking on the emeritus title to focus on research, he was Director of the CRC.
Known as Dr. Abe to his colleagues, Eisenstark was also the Byler Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) and Thomas Jefferson Professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia, where he served as director of biological sciences from 1971 to 1990.
Eisenstark was born Sept. 5, 1919, in Warsaw, Poland, and immigrated to the U.S. with his mother through Ellis Island in 1921. They joined relatives in Chicago and later Kansas City.
Following an inspiring science education at Kansas City public schools, including junior college, he entered the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for his AB and MA degrees, and to begin a Ph.D. in microbiology. His formal education in medical science was interrupted by war service as tech sergeant, 8th Medical Laboratory, in World War II. Malaria was the devastating scourge of soldiers returning from New Guinea to Townsville, Australia, and he was involved in diagnostic procedures. For service in the Pacific, he received a medal for the Battle of Papua, New Guinea.
After the war, Eisenstark eagerly returned to Illinois to finish his Ph.D. He went on to teaching positions at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater (1949–1952) and Kansas State University in Manhattan (1952-1971) before accepting the position of director of microbial genetics at the University of Missouri in 1971. During his tenure at Kansas State, he spent nine months in Copenhagen, Denmark, (1959) on a Guggenheim Fellowship; 15 months in Leicester, United Kingdom, and The Hague, Netherlands, on a National Science Foundation grant (1966-67); and 15 months in Washington, D.C., at the National Science Foundation as program director for molecular biology (1968–69).
Eisenstark continued to study salmonella throughout his career and has over 176 publications, including most recently as co-editor with Heidi Schatten of the three-volume set, “Salmonella: Methods and Protocols.” Eisenstark liked to quote Linus Pauling, who said his great joy was to see the results of an experiment and to know that he, and no one else in the world, knew what he observed. Eisenstark took great pride in the hundreds of students he mentored over the years and their accomplishments and was grateful to the distinguished scientists who mentored him.
In addition to science, Eisenstark was passionate about art. An accomplished amateur painter inspired by artists such as Klee, Miro and Chagall, he made many contributions of his paintings to the Cancer Research Center’s annual auctions. One was purchased by Bank of Missouri and hangs in the offices.
He was also passionate about travel. In addition to his service in Australia, he traveled to Japan, Mexico and Europe, including at least two dozen trips to Paris, which he considered a second home.
During his lifetime, Eisenstark was a member and contributor to a variety of social justice and liberal causes, including the ACLU, Democratic party, Jewish organizations, Unitarian fellowships and Veterans for Peace.
He is survived by his wife, Joan Ragsdell Eisenstark; his children, Romalyn, David and Douglas; his daughter-in-law, Mary Jo; granddaughter, Roma; five stepchildren, Blake, Phyllis, Carla, Brian and Bruce; and nine step-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Roma Gould Eisenstark, in 1984.
A memorial tribute will be held at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, at the Columbia Unitarian Universalist Church, 2615 Shepard Blvd. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Cancer Research Center, Congregation Beth Shalom and the Unitarian church.