[MPWG] Fw: Norman R. Farnsworth, Renowned Medicinal Plant Researcher, Dies at 81

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

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Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
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<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>

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Norman R. Farnsworth, Renowned Medicinal Plant Researcher, Dies at 81






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News Release

To All ABC Members and Members of the Herb and Medicinal Plant
Community: 

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the passing of our dear
friend and colleague, Professor Norman R. Farnsworth, on Saturday
evening, September 10, per the tribute we have produced, below. 

Respectfully,

Mark Blumenthal
Founder & Executive Director
American Botanical Council
Editor, HerbalGram & HerbClip

Norman R. Farnsworth, Renowned Medicinal Plant Researcher, Dies at 81

(Austin, TX) September 12, 2011. Renowned pharmacognosist and
internationally-respected medicinal plant research expert, Norman R.
Farnsworth, PhD, died on September 10 at a Chicago hospital. He was 81
and had been in declining health for months, suffering from long-term
congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes. 

Dr. Farnsworth was born on March 23, 1930 in Massachusetts. Norman
Farnsworth was a veteran of the Korean War, drafted in the US Army at
age 18 in 1949. PFC Farnsworth served in the Third Infantry Division,
Seventh Regimental Combat Team. Although he was seriously wounded in
the winter of 1950, Farnsworth survived. Corporal Farnsworth was
awarded the Korean Ribbon with Four Battle Stars, the Combat Medical
Badge, and Bronze Star with a "V" device.

He received his degree in pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of
Pharmacy in 1953 and his PhD in pharmacognosy, the study of drugs from
natural origins (including medicinal plants, microbes, marine
organisms, and fungi), from the University of Pittsburgh in 1959. At
Pitt, he helped to institute a pharmacognosy PhD program at the
university and was the first to chair it.

In 1970, Prof. Farnsworth left the University of Pittsburgh for a post
in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC) where he served as Head of the Department of Pharmacognosy and
Pharmacology from 1970-1982. At UIC, he was also Research Professor of
Pharmacognosy, the Director of the Pharmacognosy Graduate Program, and
Director of the World Health Organization Program for Collaborative
Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences - a multidisciplinary
program which brought together, for the first time, scientists in
numerous fields of medicinal plant research to collaborate on drug
discovery from medicinal plants. In 1988, he was named Senior
University Scholar at UIC. He held the title of Distinguished
Professor of Pharmacognosy, which he received for his "scholarship,
creativity and leadership" from 2001 until his death.

As head of the pharmacognosy graduate program at UIC, he had mentored
more than 100 PhD and 30 MS students. He said he had "personally"
mentored about 30 PhD and 5 MS graduate students as well as mentored
or co-mentored 30 post-doctoral fellows.

Professor Farnsworth was an internationally-recognized scholar and
initiator or co-initiator of many significant projects in the fields
of pharmacognosy and medicinal plant research. Among other
accomplishments, he was a founding member of the American Society of
Pharmacognosy (ASP) in 1959 and a founding member of the Society for
Economic Botany (1959).

In 1975, Prof. Farnsworth created the NAPralert (acronym for Natural
Products Alert) Database at UIC, the world's first computerized
database of ethnobotany, chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and
clinical trials on medicinal plants.

He also was the Principal Investigator and Director of the Botanical
Dietary Supplements for Women's Health Center at the University of
Illinois at Chicago funded by the National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

The author or co-author of hundreds of research papers published in
peer-reviewed journals, Prof. Farnsworth co-founded the peer-reviewed
journal Phytomedicine, the International Journal of Phytotherapy and
Phytopharmacology, along with Professor Hildebert Wagner, PhD, at the
University of Munich, who remains the journal's editor-in-chief. This
journal is now acknowledged as one of the leading scientific journals
in this field.

Among many other organizations and publications with which he was
involved, Prof. Farnsworth was also a co-founder of the American
Botanical Council (ABC), an independent nonprofit research and
education organization, and the longest-serving member of its Board of
Trustees.

In 2005, the ASP renamed its annual Research Achievement Award in
honor of Prof. Farnsworth in his name, given to outstanding
members of the medicinal plant research community. And, in 2005, ABC
established its Norman R. Farnsworth Excellence in Botanical Research
Award, given to medicinal plant researchers who have made significant
contributions to the field of medicinal plants and herbal dietary
supplements.

In 2010, UIC also established the Norman R. Farnsworth Professor in
Pharmacognosy Endowed Professorship which is chaired by Prof.
Chuan-Tao Che, PhD, one of Prof. Farnsworth's former doctoral
students.

Professor Farnsworth was the recipient of numerous awards from around
the world, including the SEB's Distinguished Economic Botanist Award
in 1983, as well as numerous other awards and honorary degrees.

In the 1990s, Prof. Farnsworth was a member of the Commission on
Dietary Supplement Labels, a commission established by President Bill
Clinton as part of the provisions of the Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) to develop recommendations for the
review of the quality, safety, benefits, and appropriate labeling of
dietary supplements.

A larger-than-life figure, Norm Farnsworth was rarely seen without his
trademark Marsh-Wheeling cigars in his mouth, even long after he was
forced to give up smoking. As venues allowing smoking in public places
diminished over the past two decades, Prof. Farnsworth would often be
seen in a restaurant or public area with one of his cigars in his
mouth, even after being admonished by waiters who told him that
smoking was not permitted. Farnsworth would point out the obvious fact
that he was not smoking, that the cigar was not lit, and would
continue to keep the cigar in his mouth, seeming to relish the
opportunity to keep walking up to the line, but not exceeding it.

He was highly-respected and admired in life and now remembered fondly
by his former students, mentees, and friends. Often seen as brash and
outspoken, frequently critical of other scientists and institutions
which to him were guilty of producing less than acceptable work or
policies, Norm Farnsworth pushed his students and all those around him
to strive to the highest degree of academic and professional
excellence. And underneath the brash veneer, was a man who was seen by
his colleagues and students as extraordinarily generous with his time
and his personal funds.

His long-time friend and colleague of 56 years, UIC Professor (ret.)
Harry H.S. Fong, PhD, once said, "Everyone who has come into contact
with Norman Farnsworth has a 'Farnsworth story' or two to tell."
Professor Fong recalled that Farnsworth, who was still working until
shortly before his illness, recently noted that Fong, his former
graduate student, had retired, as an example of how long Prof.
Farnsworth had hoped to be able to continue his never-ending work in
medicinal plant research.

Another phrase used to describe Dr. Farnsworth is the "quintessential
renaissance man," as he was so-called in an editorial in the ASP's
Journal of Natural Products by Farnsworth's colleagues Prof. Fong,
Geoffrey A. Cordell, PhD, and A. Douglas Kinghorn, PhD, JNP's
editor-in-chief: "To fully depict Farnsworth, one needs to write a
book," said Dr. Fong.

Dr. Fong shared several anecdotes about Dr. Farnsworth. One story
involved Dr. Farnsworth's propensity for cigars. "On every lab bench
and in every office that Norm has spent any length of time at the
University of Pittsburgh and at University of Illinois at Chicago, one
will find a littering of chewed remains of Marsh Wheeling cigar
butts," said Dr. Fong. "In fact, such mementos can even be found in
Munich, Germany. When he was a visiting professor in Prof. H. Wagner's
lab in 1966, I had the 'pleasure' of regularly mailing boxes of Marsh
Wheeling cigars labeled as 'Investigational Material: Of no commercial
interest' to the Institute in Munich."

However, when it comes to picking out Dr. Farnsworth's most important
accomplishment, Dr. Fong could not choose: "It is not possible to
pinpoint any one piece of Norm's work as being most influential and
important," said Dr. Fong. "Rather, it is his body of work that will
constitute his legacy."

ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal first met
Farnsworth in 1977 at the Herb Trade Association's Herb Symposium in
Santa Cruz, CA. After a decade of growing mentorship and friendship
with Blumenthal, Farnsworth, along with economic botanist and
ethnobotanist James A. Duke, PhD were the first to agree to help found
ABC and serve on its Board of Trustees.

"Norm was a force of nature - a man with incredible energy and
profound and endless commitment to the world of medicinal plant
research. There is no one like him in the profession of pharmacognosy
and other fields of medicinal plant research," said Blumenthal.

"He was like a father or uncle figure to many of his 130-plus PhD
students and post-docs, creating a 'family' of medicinal plant
researchers who are now working in many institutions around. No matter
how busy he was - and he carried an incredible workload not
matched by many in any field of medicinal plant science - Norm
would always take time to talk to students and fellow colleagues,"
said Blumenthal.

"As he neared the last few years of his life and he began to disengage
from many of his former associations and responsibilities, Norm still
remained active on the Board of ABC, attending all on-site and
teleconference meetings, asking questions about budget issues,
organization, administration, policy decisions, etc. All of us on the
ABC Board were - and still are - grateful for his
continued association with ABC. We were amazed with his interest in
and knowledge details of the organization, and his profound
commitment to the success of ABC's unique nonprofit educational
mission to spread the scientific basis supporting the responsible use
of herbs, medicinal plants, and phytomedicines," said Blumenthal.

One of Farnsworth and Fong's former students is Daniel Fabricant, PhD,
now Director of the Division of Dietary Supplement Programs at the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who said that he chose UIC because
of Dr. Farnsworth and his legacy there. "He's a straight shooter, he
doesn't put on airs, and he's very disarming. He's easy to gravitate
to because of these unique qualities," said Dr. Fabricant. "He's been
my mentor, a hero, and a friend."

"He has launched a thousand careers, including my own," said Gail
Mahady, PhD, a clinical pharmacognosist who also met Dr. Farnsworth
during graduate school, who headed the project at UIC to produce
monographs on herbal medicines for the WHO. "For that I will be
eternally grateful."

Norman Farnsworth is survived by his devoted wife Priscilla Marston
Farnsworth, his brother, Bruce, and sister-in-law, Donna, of
Massachusetts, a niece and nephew, and hundreds of graduate students,
PhDs, post-doctoral fellows, and close colleagues who will always
cherish his beloved memory.

A wake and viewing will be held at the Adams Winterfield &
Sullivan Funeral Home, 4343 Main St., Downers Grove, IL on Tuesday,
September 13 from 3-9pm. Memorial service for Professor Farnsworth
will be held Wednesday, September 14 at 10am (9:30am viewing) at the
North Shore Baptist Church, 5244 N. Lakewood Ave., Chicago, IL
with funeral and burial in Lynn, Massachusetts on Friday, September 16
at 10am, at Cuffe-McGinn Funeral Home, 157 Maple St.; interment will
follow at Pine Grove Cemetery.

About the American Botanical Council

Founded in 1988, the American Botanical Council is a leading
international nonprofit organization addressing research and
educational issues regarding herbs and medicinal plants. ABC's members
include academic researchers and educators; libraries; health
professionals and medical institutions; government agencies; members
of the herb, dietary supplement, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical
industries; journalists; consumers; and others in over 80 countries.
The organization occupies a beautiful historic 2.5-acre site in
Austin, Texas, where it publishes the quarterly journal HerbalGram,
the monthly e-publication HerbalEGram, HerbClips (summaries of
scientific and clinical publications), reference books, and other
educational materials. ABC also hosts HerbMedPro, a powerful herbal
database, covering scientific and clinical publications on more than
225 herbs. ABC also co-produces the "Herbal Insights" segment for
Healing Quest, a television series on PBS.

ABC is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code.
Information: Contact ABC at P.O. Box 144345, Austin, TX 78714-4345,
Phone: 512-926-4900. 
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