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30 MARCH 1920 * 23 JULY 2007
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
DANIEL E. KOSHLAND JR. was a deep thinker. Throughout his life, up to his death on 23 July 2007 at age eightyseven, his mind navigated effortlessly across many levels of the scientific enterprise, from mathematical theories of enzyme mechanism to the interface of science and society, all with unpretentious grace, optimism, and wit. Dan had insatiable curiosity and enthusiasm for science, which directed his long scientific career down a broad range of paths. Combining an undying optimism and an abiding willingness to serve the greater community, Dan was constantly working to improve the environment around him. Through his research, his teaching and mentoring, and his significant involvement in professional and public service, he influenced an extended family of scientists; Dan impacted the world not only directly through his own efforts, but also through the many he touched.
Dan was born 30 March 1920 to Daniel E. Koshland Sr. and Eleanor Haas. The collaboration between these two families became well known to the San Francisco Bay Area. Dan Sr., who was a banker in New York, moved his family to San Francisco, where, in 1940, he became vice president of Levi Strauss &C Co., the famous purveyor of denim. Walter A. Haas Sr., Dan Sr.'s brother-in-law, was president of Levi Strauss and later owned the Major League baseball team the Oakland Athletics (the "A's"). Both families have been generous benefactors to many Bay Area institutions and causes.
Growing up in this commercially focused environment colored Dan Jr.'s world outlook; he would sometimes compare the jeans business to the biotechnology sector, pointing out that when Levi started, there were multiple other competitors, but they, just like many small biotechnology start-ups, did not survive. Levi's business flourished, of course, and Dan likely could have gone through life without working too much. When he passed away in 2007, it was estimated that he was one of the wealthiest academicians in the country, with a net worth estimated at $800 million in 1997. He devoted his wealth to many causes; he was a generous benefactor to Haverford College in Pennsylvania, the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and his beloved "CaI" (the University of California, Berkeley). He also contributed to the funding...