Edward Shanbrom obituary: Hematologist who developed blood-cleaning process was 87

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The onetime headmistress of an elite girls’ school fatally shot Dr. Herman Tarnower, her lover and the creator of the famous “Scarsdale Diet.” The killing generated front-page headlines and national debates about whether she was a feminist martyr or vengeful murderer. She was 89. Full obituary
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Often called “Stormin’ Norman” for his legendary temper, the former four-star general is best known as the commander of 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, which quickly drove an invading Iraq out of Kuwait. He reminded America what it was like to win a war and defined the nation’s renewed sense of military pride. He was 78. Full obituary

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The Hawaii Democrat was the second-longest-serving senator in U.S. history. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his World War II combat heroics. He was 88. Full obituary
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Rivera defied the limits of genre and used her personal struggles in her songs, becoming a hero among Latin women in the U.S. and Mexico and a powerful player in a field dominated by machismo. She was 43. Full obituary | Photos
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Niemeyer, who loved curves in design and disliked right angles, shared architecture’s Pritzker Prize in 1988. He designed the major buildings that form the heart of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. He was 104. Full obituary | Photos

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The New Hampshire senator co-authored a groundbreaking budget-balancing law, championed ethics and led a commission that predicted the danger of terrorist attacks years before 9/11. He was 82. Full obituary
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Though already a television star for his role on 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” Hagman is best known for playing villainous patriarch J.R. Ewing in the TV soap “Dallas.” In 1980, an estimated 300 million viewers in 57 countries saw J.R. get shot. Hagman was 81. Full obituary
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Former boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho fought a who’s who of legendary opponents stretching from Ray Mancini to Oscar De La Hoya. Known for flamboyance in the ring, he showed he understood the importance of selling a fight and employing some mental warfare. He was 50. Full obituary
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The inventive American composer whose music celebrated the intricacies of modern life helped define the American sound in the 20th century. He received two Pulitzer Prizes, the Sibelius Medal and the National Medal of the Arts. He was 103. Full obituary
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The Hall of Fame boxing trainer directed several world-champion fighters including Thomas Hearns, Lennox Lewis and current heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko. His Detroit gym is one of the world’s best known boxing centers. He was 68. Full obituary

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A three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. Though he lost in a landslide against Richard M. Nixon, his campaign left a significant legacy, including his proposals, since fulfilled, that women be appointed to the Supreme Court and nominated for the vice presidency. He was 90. Full obituary
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Writer of the bestselling 1962 book “Sex and the Single Girl,” Brown broke ground by discussing the sex life of single women. The book led to led to a syndicated newspaper column, a movie of the same name and, in 1965, to Brown’s role as editor of Cosmopolitan. She was 90. Full obituary

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The prolific composer won three Academy Awards for “The Way We Were” and “The Sting,” a Tony and a Pulitzer for “A Chorus Line” and four Emmys. Charming audiences with his improvisational agility, he was principal pops conductor for several major symphonies, including the Pasadena Symphony and Pops and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He was 68. Full obituary

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The iconoclastic author, savvy analyst and glorious gadfly of the national conscience was a literary juggernaut who wrote novels including “Lincoln” and the satirical “Myra Breckinridge.” His essays are considered among the most elegant in the English language. He was 86. Full obituary

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The onetime underground Jewish fighter served four terms as Israeli prime minister in the 1980s and early ‘90s. His unyielding belief in the right of Jews to all of the biblical land of Israel often exasperated U.S. policymakers. He was 96. Full obituary

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A rare author and screenwriter whose works appealed to highbrow readers and mainstream movie-goers, Ephron wrote fiction that was distinguished by characters who seemed simultaneously normal and extraordinary. Her hit movies include “Sleepless in Seattle,” “When Harry Met Sally...” and “Julie & Julia.” She was 71. Full obituary

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Known for his colorful portraits of athletes in motion, the wildly successful American artist became an artistic fixture at such major sporting events as the Olympics and the Super Bowl. Neiman was also a longtime contributor to Playboy magazine. He was 91. Full obituary

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The tape of King’s 1991 beating and the upheaval that followed in 1992 opened the door to widespread police reform. King, who became an icon of the civil rights movement, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in Rialto. Authorities are investigating his death as an accidental drowning. He was 47. Full obituary

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Best known for her Oscar-nominated supporting role as a blowsy barfly in the 1972 movie “Fat City,” Tyrrell’s film credits also included “Islands in the Stream,” “Angel,” and “Cry-Baby.” Critics “hailed her as one of the best screen drunks they’d ever seen,” Roderick Mann later wrote in The Times. She was 67. Full obituary

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The former head of Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry was an authoritarian who cracked down on political dissent. After a series of attacks inside the kingdom, he became a close Washington ally against Al Qaeda. He died just months after he was named heir apparent in the world’s leading oil power. He was 78. Full obituary

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Dubbed “one of the true powerhouses of the pop music business” by Fortune magazine in 1986, the year she became BMI’s president and chief executive, Frances Williams Preston was a key figure in Nashville’s growth as a major music center, and nurtured the careers of numerous songwriters. She was 83. Full obituary

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The South African paleoanthropologist, nominated three times for a Nobel Prize, excavated the Sterkfontein Caves, one of his nation’s most important fossil sites. He was also part of the research on hominids in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, collaborating with a British archaeologist on the identification of one the early hominids, Homo habilis, in 1964. Tobias was 86. Full obituary

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The in-your-face rapper and bass player Adam Yauch, center, found fame in the transgressive, boundary-breaking trio the Beastie Boys. In later years, Yauch became a leading advocate for Tibetan independence. He was 47. Full obituary

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The star linebacker at USC and for his hometown San Diego Chargers made the Pro Bowl 12 years in a row and was voted All-Pro 10 times. He apparently ended his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 43. Full obituary

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By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times

March 4, 2012 12 AM PT

As pioneering hematologist Dr. Edward Shanbrom looked for simple solutions to complex problems, his home was often his laboratory and common household items his scientific ally.

When he needed a filter to test a concept, one made for coffee would do just fine. If he was investigating ideas related to plasma and none was available, he would use milk because it shares many properties with plasma.

“I don’t do sophisticated science,” Shanbrom once said. “My work is quick and feasible” yet could “be very important.”

He was one of the developers of a breakthrough treatment for hemophilia and on his own devised a critical blood-cleaning process that uses detergents to remove viruses from blood plasma.

Shanbrom died Feb. 20 of natural causes at his home in Tustin, his family said. He was 87.

“Hemophilia patients and blood product recipients worldwide have benefited from Dr. Shanbrom’s work,” Samuel D. Anderson, his colleague and a former pharmaceutical and biotechnology executive, said in a statement.

Shanbrom was a practicing Southern California physician who specialized in hematology when he joined a division of Baxter Laboratories in the late 1960s as vice president of medical and scientific affairs.

While there, he helped come up with a treatment for hemophilia that is still used today. The method produces a clotting factor, absent in hemophiliacs, that normally stops bleeding.

The family kitchen turned into Shanbrom’s primary work space when he struck out on his own in the mid-1970s.

By the early 1980s he had discovered the blood-purification process that uses mild detergents to sweep viruses from blood plasma. Shanbrom eventually became a leader in the use of detergents and other natural products to destroy viruses — including HIV — and other contaminants in blood.

When the New York Blood Center, a large nonprofit blood bank and research organization, bought rights to his patented blood-cleaning processes in 1988, he arranged for his royalties to fund a deeply personal cause: traffic-accident prevention.

Two years earlier, his youngest son, David, 27, was killed when a speeding tractor-trailer went out of control on the 210 Freeway in San Dimas and struck his car.

The death of his son plunged him into a deep depression that partly lifted when Shanbrom diverted most of his royalties to fund fellowships in traffic safety research at the UC Irvine Institute of Transportation Studies, he told The Times in 1988.

With his wife, Helen, Shanbrom researched the issue of hand brakes in trucks after learning that the driver of the speeding truck that killed their son had used his trailer hand brake to try to slow down.

At the urging of the Shanbroms, state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) introduced a measure in the Legislature to bar commercial truck drivers from slowing tractor-trailer rigs by using only trailer brakes. It became law in 1989.

Born in 1924 in West Haven, Conn., Shanbrom was the youngest of four sons of a lumberyard owner and his homemaker wife.

He served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946 as a medic stationed mainly at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 1947, Shanbrom received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Four years later, he earned a medical degree from the University of Buffalo.

After interning at University Hospital in Buffalo, Shanbrom studied hematology at Yale University. Before turning to research, he specialized in hematology at hospitals including the City of Hope and what is now UC Irvine Medical Center.

In recognition of his research and philanthropy, UC Irvine named a medical school building after him in 2007. Shanbrom also was a major supporter of the arts in Orange County.

At home, Shanbrom routinely tested scientific ideas on his family and himself. Wanting to see if a new cranberry extract would protect against sunburn, he smeared it on his forehead and sat in the sun. It failed but proved effective as a temporary hair dye, turning his hair pink for a week.

In addition to Helen, his wife of 65 years, Shanbrom is survived by a daughter, Susan Krabbe, of Kirkland, Wash.; two sons, Bob of Los Osos, Calif., and Bill of Ojai; and four grandchildren.

valerie.nelson@latimes.com

Edward Shanbrom dies at 87; hematologist developed blood-cleaning process

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