Obituaries - May 13, 1999

Sir Edward Abraham; Helped Develop Penicillin

Sir Edward Abraham, 85, Oxford University professor and biochemist who helped develop penicillin. As a researcher at Oxford, Abraham worked with Ernest Chain and Howard Florey on the purification of penicillin. He went on to develop the cephalosporin class of antibiotics now used extensively in the treatment of respiratory infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Born in Southampton, England, Abraham earned a doctorate from Oxford in 1938, studied in Sweden and returned to Oxford to work on penicillin. Through his patents, Abraham became wealthy, but he donated most of his fortune to a charitable trust to support biomedical research. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1980. On Sunday in Oxford, England.

Antony Raubitschek; Stanford Classics Professor

Antony Raubitschek, 86, Stanford classics professor who was an expert on the epigraphy and archeology of Athens’ Acropolis. A native of Austria, Raubitschek studied at the University of Vienna and worked in Athens as part of the Austrian Institute. After Adolf Hitler took over Austria, Raubitschek moved to Princeton to work with its Institute for Advanced Study. He was co-author with England’s Lillian Jeffrey of the 1949 book “Dedications From the Athenian Akropolis.” Raubitschek taught at Yale and Princeton before moving to Stanford as professor of classics in 1963. A much-loved teacher, he earned the dean’s award and the Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching. In March, Austria awarded him its highest honor for a private citizen, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art. At the time of his death, Raubitschek was analyzing the relationship of John Quincy Adams’ writings to classical scholarship. On Friday in Palo Alto.

Helen Taylor Sheats; Artist and Architect

Helen Taylor Sheats, 89, an artist, architect and civil rights advocate. Her more than 170 paintings in the neo-Fauvist style were based on her observations while leading art tours of Mexico, the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy. A devotee of futuristic architecture, the Chicago-born Helen Caroline Johnson helped design her own residences, the Taylor House in Madison, Wis., and later, with architect John Lautner, the Sheats Residence in Beverly Hills. She also helped Lautner design L’Horizon Apartments, an innovative 1950 complex near UCLA in Westwood. Sheats studied art and mathematics at the University of Wisconsin and the Art Institute of Chicago and for a time taught art and jewelry design. After the death of her first husband, Vern Taylor, she married and was later divorced from Paul Henry Sheats. She converted a church for use as her home and studio in Santa Monica. On May 4 in Los Angeles.