Schneiderman, Former Dean at UCI, Dies
Former UC Irvine dean Howard A. Schneiderman, a top executive for the Monsanto Co. who is credited with building the university’s nationally respected School of Biological Sciences, has died after a lengthy battle with leukemia, university officials said Thursday.
Schneiderman died Wednesday night at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. He was 63.
“Howard was one of the greatest scientists we’ve ever had here,” said William Parker, assistant executive vice chancellor at UCI. “He was one of those handful of people who helped characterize the spirit of UCI. Some of his ideas made the School of Biological Sciences the quality school it is today.”
At Monsanto headquarters in St. Louis, he was remembered Thursday as the chief architect of the company’s shift from chemicals to biotechnology in the early 1980s.
“Dr. Schneiderman was the moving force behind the corporation’s move into biotechnology,” Monsanto spokesman Glynn Young said. “There were some programs already under way, but what Dr. Schneiderman did was make it (biotechnology) a primary research function of the corporation. He gave it strong direction and leadership and turned it into the major research of this corporation.”
Born in New York City in 1927, Schneiderman garnered many appointments and awards in his academic career. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, he earned his master’s degree in zoology and doctorate in physiology at Harvard University.
A specialist in genetics, insect physiology and endocrinology, Schneiderman was lured to UCI from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1969 to be chairman of the 4-year-old university’s department of developmental and cell biology. His forceful personality and infectious enthusiasm caught on immediately.
“I was dean of the School of Biological Sciences when Howard arrived,” recalled longtime friend and UCI psychobiology professor James L. McGaugh.
“As soon as I saw him, I resigned as dean and recommended that he take over,” said McGaugh, now director of UCI’s Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. “I said: ‘That’s the correct dean. This is the kind of person I will work for, that I will listen to and interact with.’ Those are very, very rare people.
In 1975, at the age of 48, he became the second UCI professor to be elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. The same year, he was named a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Schneiderman left UCI in 1979 to become Monsanto’s senior vice president for research and development projects, a post he held until his death. He maintained an unpaid UCI faculty position and close ties with campus colleagues.
“He was a giant in academia and in industry,” recalled UCI Chancellor Jack Peltason, who consulted often with Schneiderman in recent years on varied issues.
“He was one of the giants of this campus, one of its builders,” Peltason said. “Everything he did, he did full bore. . . . He was one of the wise people.”
Schneiderman is survived by his wife, Audrey; a daughter, Anne Schneiderman of Ithaca, N.Y., and a son, John Schneiderman of Newport Beach.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Jan. 6 in St. Louis, at Washington University’s Graham Chapel. The family has requested that gifts be made in his name to the medical oncology division of Washington University’s School of Medicine.
A separate memorial service is being planned at UCI for early next year, Peltason said.
