Full Text of SR0637 100th General Assembly
SR0637 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to | 3 | | learn of the death of Fred August Kummerow of Urbana, who | 4 | | passed away on May 31, 2017; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow was born in Berlin, Germany to | 6 | | Helene Rieck and August Kummerow on October 4, 1914, while his | 7 | | father was away in the German Army fighting the Russians on the | 8 | | Eastern Front; in 1923, at the age of eight, he and his family | 9 | | emigrated to the United States; he began school in Milwaukee, | 10 | | Wisconsin, not speaking a word of English; he graduated from | 11 | | Boys Technical High School in Milwaukee in 1933; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow was employed at Yahr Lange Drug & | 13 | | Cosmetic Company, working 48-hours a week and taking night | 14 | | classes four nights a week at the Milwaukee branch of the | 15 | | University of Wisconsin, which was enough to make him a | 16 | | sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he began | 17 | | there in September of 1936; he graduated with a Bachelor of | 18 | | Science in Chemistry in 1939; he started his graduate work with | 19 | | Professor Harry Steenbok, the discoverer of Vitamin D; he was | 20 | | awarded a Master of Science in 1941 and a Ph.D. in 1943, both | 21 | | in Biochemistry; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow married Amy Louise Hildebrand on |
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| 1 | | June 24, 1942; in the Fall of 1943, they left Madison for a | 2 | | National Research Council job at Clemson University in South | 3 | | Carolina; the job aimed to eradicate pellagra, a disease caused | 4 | | by the lack of niacin in the diet, which was still killing | 5 | | 2,000 people in 1941; by 1945, only 12 people died of pellagra | 6 | | because of the success of this project; he then took a position | 7 | | as assistant professor in chemistry at Kansas State University | 8 | | in Manhattan, Kansas; there, among other projects, he worked on | 9 | | making frozen turkeys more edible by changing their diets; in | 10 | | 1950, the family, now with children, Max and Jean, and | 11 | | soon-to-be born, Kay, moved to Urbana for a position as | 12 | | assistant professor of food chemistry in the newly organized | 13 | | Department of Food Technology (later renamed Food Science); he | 14 | | retired in 1985 and continued to serve as professor emeritus | 15 | | and adjunct professor in the Department of Comparative | 16 | | Biosciences, where he was actively involved in research; he | 17 | | served as Ph.D. thesis adviser for more than 60 graduate | 18 | | students; more than 50 post-doctoral fellows also performed | 19 | | research at the Burnsides Research Laboratory, a facility which | 20 | | Fred Kummerow built and headed on the University of Illinois | 21 | | campus; and | 22 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow was an author or co-author of | 23 | | approximately 450 peer-reviewed papers; the Burnsides Lab was | 24 | | an international enterprise with students and professors from | 25 | | at least 14 different countries working there over the years; |
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| 1 | | he was awarded over $16 million in research grants and had | 2 | | several million dollars of grants since his retirement to | 3 | | support his research; he authored a book of nutritional advice | 4 | | with his daughter, Jean, entitled "Cholesterol is Not the | 5 | | Culprit"; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow published a paper on the negative | 7 | | heart health effects of trans fats in 1957 and had been | 8 | | concerned about their effects ever since; he served on the | 9 | | American Heart Association Diet Committee in 1968; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, In 2009, at age 95, Fred Kummerow filed a Citizens | 11 | | Petition with the Food and Drug Administration to ban trans fat | 12 | | entirely; in 2014, after no action was taken, a lawsuit was | 13 | | filed on his behalf; he was delighted and vindicated when the | 14 | | FDA finally agreed that trans fats were dangerous and announced | 15 | | their ban in 2015; slowly, nutritional and political | 16 | | communities have come towards his point of view; he received | 17 | | worldwide publicity for his work on trans fats, including | 18 | | articles in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the | 19 | | Washington Post, along with features by Al Jazeera, a Korean | 20 | | television network, and the University of Illinois; never one | 21 | | to slow down, he then began research on the effects of diet on | 22 | | Alzheimer's disease; and | 23 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow received several awards for his |
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| 1 | | research, including a "Scientist of Integrity" award from the | 2 | | Weston Price Foundation; his intelligence and insight remained | 3 | | quite strong, even after he reached the age of 102; he followed | 4 | | politics avidly, writing numerous letters to public officials, | 5 | | and advocating for peace and green energy; he felt that | 6 | | spreading scientific knowledge throughout the world and | 7 | | feeding people enough of the right foods would go a long way | 8 | | towards promoting better health and longer lives; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow supported his wife's political and | 10 | | community activities, including Planned Parenthood and the | 11 | | Democratic Party; he agreed with her liberal politics and was | 12 | | proud when she was one of the first women elected to the | 13 | | Champaign County Board, where she served for 20 years; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow and his wife loved to travel; he | 15 | | visited laboratories in Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, | 16 | | India, Israel, China, Australia, and Cuba and presented | 17 | | research at conferences all over the world; they also loved | 18 | | going to the opera, especially LaBoheme; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow was preceded in death by his wife, | 20 | | Amy, and his brother, Werner; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Fred Kummerow is survived by his children, Max | 22 | | (Ellen Jacobsen-Isserman), Jean (Frank Mabley), and Kay (Ron |
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| 1 | | Mengarelli); his grandchildren, Elizabeth Loban, Robert Loban, | 2 | | and Patrick Watson; his great-grandson, Asher Watson; and | 3 | | numerous nieces and nephews; therefore, be it
| 4 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL | 5 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 6 | | Fred August Kummerow, and extend our sincere condolences to his | 7 | | family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it | 8 | | further
| 9 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 10 | | presented to the family of Fred Kummerow as an expression of | 11 | | our deepest sympathy.
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