Don S. Schalch

Dr. Don Sylvester Schalch passed away peacefully on April 11, at the age of 95, from complications of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. He was a pioneering medical researcher, revered doctor, professor and mentor, and beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend. He had a brilliant mind, boundless energy, and an unshakable conviction that he needed to leave the world better than he found it. In countless ways, he did.

Don grew up in Bethel Park, PA, the son of an artist, Alice and a chemical engineer, Jacques. He worked hard, became an Eagle Scout, played football, and graduated at the top of his class. He went off to Oberlin College, where his idealism and determination to make himself useful only grew.

He married the love of his life, Joanne Krizek, graduated as valedictorian of his class at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, then completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of Rochester, where he accepted a position on the faculty.

He soon began publishing groundbreaking research – and became one of the most highly cited scientists in the world. He was studying a protein called insulin-like growth factor, looking for keys to complex feedback mechanisms that regulate our bodies. He faced the same conundrum as others investigating invisible bioactive molecules. To study them, you needed to be able to isolate and purify them. There was no good way to do that. Don invented one – a unique and completely new way to tag, identify, and separate chemicals, using a radioactive isotope of iodine, charcoal, glass columns, centrifuges, and mass spectrometry. Microbiology was in its infancy, and this was a major step toward unlocking the secrets of all sorts of biochemicals essential to life.

Don continued to lead and innovate, as a researcher, clinician, and professor of medicine, at the University of Colorado and then at the University of Wisconsin, where he became head of the Endocrinology section. He did not care about money or status or doing what was normal or expected. He tried to negotiate his salary down to leave more money for research, and later, turned down a big raise, asking that the money be divided among his colleagues instead. As a faculty mentor to a class of medical students, he took the time to guide and help in ways that made him a legend.

He taught his students to see medicine as he did, as a profession that should be noble and selfless. He showed them how to treat each patient with respect, thoroughness, and compassion. He led volunteers on medical missions to countries like Haiti and Guatemala and set up “pop-up” clinics in remote villages with no other access to medical care. In Madison, he oversaw the expansion of MEDiC a network of free clinics staffed by medical and nursing students and other volunteers. To him no patient and no problem was unimportant. In an era of ever-shorter appointments, he never looked at his watch. He listened and asked questions, followed up, and responded to calls late into the evening.

He was there, in equal measure, for his family and others who needed him – at his daughter’s swim meets across town, at their speedskating championships across the country, at every one of his granddaughter’s soccer games. When something went wrong with your “fixer-upper” house, he would be there too, hauling drywall, soldering pipes, or climbing perilously around on the roof. Plumbing, electrical systems, load bearing walls – nothing intimidated him.

He answered other calls too. In the 1960s, when civil rights activists asked for decent affordable housing in minority communities, Don founded an organization called Community Volunteers of Rochester to build it. In the 1970s, when solar technology was in its infancy, he designed and built one of the first solar homes in the country. He and Joanne treated nature with reverence and tried to live lightly upon the earth. They wore sweaters inside, fixed and reused things, and Don rode his bicycle to work, 7 miles each way, until he was well into his 80s.

Throughout their 63-year marriage, and until her death in early 2018, Joanne remained devoted to him and everything he strived for. He leaves behind four doating daughters, Kathy Schalch, Nancy Schalch, Heidi Schalch, and Linda Eickhoff, eleven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren, and a legacy that will live on, in the discoveries he made possible, the values he taught, his dreams of a better world, and his lifelong quest to make them come true.

A memorial service and celebration of Don’s life will be held in Madison, Wisconsin this summer. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts for Don may be directed to The Joanne and Don Schalch Class of 2002 Scholarship Fund at give.wiscmedicine.org/ClassOf2002 or the MEDiC Fund at supportuw.org/giveto/medic, to support causes dear to his heart.