University of California: In Memoriam, 1986

John E. Snoke, Biological Chemistry: Los Angeles

	1921-1984
	Associate Professor

John E. Snoke, biochemist, man of principle, man of integrity, died on November 5, 1984. He was a man who settled only for the best from himself both in his work and play. He loved physical activity and he reached levels of performance beyond that of most of his colleagues and friends. He played tennis expertly until an elbow interfered. He had a passion for hiking in the mountains with supplies for a week or more on his back and he continued this until he wore out his companions. He took to bicycling later in life and typically set goals for himself. Several months before his death in a bicycling accident, he said that he was able to ride 200 miles in one day, a goal reached by few, and wryly complained that he missed the challenge of aiming for 300 miles because he limited himself to riding during daylight hours.

John was born in Buffalo, New York on May 17, 1921. After high school in Buffalo, where he was steered towards science by aptitude and interest, he enrolled at the University of Illinois and received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in June of 1946. From Urbana he moved to Duke University at Durham for graduate training in biochemistry, resulting in a Ph.D. earned in record time, in June of 1949. He held the positions of research assistant and U.S. Public Health Service predoctoral fellow during the period of graduate work and became a U.S. public health service postdoctoral fellow for an additional year at Duke. The next move was to the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Chicago in the fall of 1950 to the post of research associate, first as instructor and next as assistant professor. He was appointed to the faculty in Biological Chemistry (then called Physiological Chemistry) at UCLA in 1954 where he spent the remainder of his career.

John Snoke was fascinated by enzymes and proteins. At Duke he worked with the noted biochemist, Hans Neurath, and did some first-class work on the specificity of a variety of proteolytic enzymes. His mentor during the post-doctoral years at Chicago was the future Nobel prize winner,

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Konrad Bloch. In those days, how proteins were formed was a complete mystery. The two decided to examine the biosynthesis of a naturally occurring tripeptide, glutathione, as a model for the study of protein biosynthesis. They demonstrated the enzymatic formation of glutathione from a dipeptide, an amino acid, and an energy source, work which was immediately recognized to be of fundamental importance. John was a worthy colleague of Bloch, and indeed published some of his research of that period independently.

At UCLA, John vigorously continued his research interests in mechanisms of biosynthesis of proteins. He chose next as a model the peptide antibiotic, bacitracin. Over the years he and his students published a number of interesting papers on the organism that produces bacitracin, on the formation of this complex peptide and on requirements for its activity.

In the latter part of his career, John gave most of his time to teaching, particularly in the School of Dentistry. He was thorough and dedicated. He spent many hours in individual tutoring and counseling. He was highly effective. He was for three years in a row named by the students as the outstanding teacher in the School of Dentistry. He stimulated student performance to such an extent that on National Dental Board examinations, UCLA dental classes averaged near or at the top nationally in biochemistry. He served the University well in other ways, for example as member and a chair of the Admissions Committee for the School of Dentistry. He was influential too, in increasing the number of women and minority dental students to considerably higher levels at UCLA.

He was a busy man, never bored. He loved nature, and music, and literature. He was also an excellent photographer and took some remarkable pictures of flowers and outdoor scenes. He had a strong social conscience that never wavered, and at the same time he was optimistic and had a positive attitude to life. He was dedicated to his family and was a loyal and sensitive friend. It was a privilege to have known him.

About this text
Courtesy of University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb767nb3z6&brand=oac4
Title: 1986, University of California: In Memoriam
By:  University of California (System) Academic Senate, Author
Date: 1986
Contributing Institution:  University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info
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