Fredric
S Fay, 53, Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University
of Massachusetts Medical School and a member of the Center for Molecular
Medicine died unexpectedly March 18, 1997 in Halle, Germany where
he was presenting a paper to the German Society for Cell Biology.
He was born in New York City, when his parents emigrated from Germany
in 1937 to escape Nazi oppression. He graduated from the Bronx High
School of Science in 1961, and then attended Cornell University where
he graduated cum laude with distinction in all subjects and was elected
to Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Fay received his Ph.D. in Physiology at Harvard
University where he studied the mechanism of contraction of muscle
cells as a Samuel A. Levine Fellow of the Massachusetts Heart Association.
He then became one of the founding faculty members at the newly established
University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1970. At UMMS, his seminal
research on the function of smooth muscle cells provided the basis
of modern understanding of how these cells contract. He also pioneered
the development of the digital imaging microscope which allows researchers
and clinicians to study living cells in new ways at the Biomedical
Imaging Center, which he founded at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School. Dr. Fay received numerous awards and research grants,
including the Telegram and Gazette 2000 Enterprise Award in 1991,
the Admiral R. Earl Award of the Worcester Engineering Society, and
the Glaxo Cardiovascular Award.
