Robert Albert Wolbach
Sept. 3, 1930-May 26, 2016
Palo Alto, California

Robert (Bob) Albert Wolbach peacefully succumbed to kidney failure on May 26 at his Palo Alto home. Bob was a loving husband and father, cheerful friend, professor of medicine, research physiologist, political activist, artist, punster, patron of theater and music, and traveler.

Born and raised in New York City, Bob was the only child of artists Robert P. and Alberta Falck Wolbach. He attended Stuyvesant High School, received a B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1951, and a Ph.D. in physiology from Cornell University Medical School (NYC) in 1954. During the Korean War, his Army assignment was at Harvard University where he researched frostbite, a serious problem in the conflict.

Dr. Wolbach began his academic career at New York University School of Medicine in 1956. He later became a medical student there, while continuing to teach physiology and research kidney function. He was awarded an M.D. in 1961, then worked six months in a laboratory in Copenhagen, and interned at University of California, San Francisco.

Beginning in 1962, Bob taught at the University of Utah College of Medicine. He served as assistant to the dean for minority affairs from 1972 to 1975. Among his political activities, Bob led Utahns for Eugene McCarthy and was elected an alternate delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He met his wife, Marie Bartholomew, in Salt Lake City.

In 1978, Bob began working as a director of clinical research for Abbott Labs in N. Chicago. A similar position at Syntex Labs brought the family to Palo Alto in 1983.

Bob is survived by his wife, Marie; children, Sean, Michelle, Lon, Renata, Bryce, Robert and Cory; grandchildren, Keir, Sienna, Tatyana and Stig; and cousin, Jon Falck.