"... if ever there was a twentieth-century Renaissance man, J. Murray Luck was that man..."
-Rev. Don MacInnes
This is a ramble through innumerable byways of an interesting, productive and long life. James Murray Luck's tenure on the planet spanned most of the 20th century, from 1899 to 1993; its venue reached from his birthplace in Paris Ontario, to Cambridge England, and to Stanford California, with a significant tour in Switzerland. He was one of the pioneers of Biochemistry; but its establishment as a separate department at Stanford ensued only after his retirement from Chemistry in 1964. He is perhaps best known as the founder of the Annual Review of Biochemistry and as the architect of the larger series of Annual Reviews that followed, which have become a major organ of communication and assimilation among scientists. An invitation to contribute to an Annual Review has long been a mark of peer appreciation and prestige.
Notable was Murray's generosity in basing this enterprise in a not-for-profit organization when it might well have been a highly lucrative business operation. That act was simply in keeping with his dedication to voluntary cooperative movements of all kinds, from the Rochdale consumer co-ops to faculty housing ventures like the Ladera subdivision near Stanford. That same spirit pervades the structure of Annual Reviews today, embracing the authors, editors, and board, all serving with no or nominal compensation in a common effort. I have been affiliated with Annual Reviews since 1949, when I wrote about "Bacterial Variation" for Volume 3 of the Annual Review of Microbiology; it was my privilege to serve with Murray on its board since 1972, and as that board's chair after 1976. We always welcomed Murray to our deliberations, long after his formal retirement; he in turn was careful to offer his wisdom only when it could be useful and appreciated. The period of my own participation with Murray at AR seems a long one, yet it spanned hardly more than half of his own lifetime.
Perhaps another book remains to be written about his experiences at Stanford University. Here is only the briefest mention of his research and teaching; but Murray's bibliography is now available, along with a collection of his reprints, in Stanford's Luck Archives. From my own experience, I know the encouragement Murray gave to Edward Tatum for the teaching of comparative biochemistry in 1941. That course flowered into the conception of the biochemical genetics of Neurospora and later into the Nobel Prize Tatum shared with GW Beadle (1958). Maclyn McCarty has recorded his early training in biochemical separations as an undergraduate with Murray, a precursor to his stunning identification (in 1944 with Avery and Macleod) of DNA as the genetic molecule.
We are regaled with anecdotal accounts of figures like Sir Gowland Hopkins, Joseph Needham, and J.B.S. Haldane. Murray writes movingly about his involvement with one science-based policy issue after another. Earlier than most biologists, he was engaged with the challenges of global human nutrition in the face of the Malthusian predicament. He did not hesitate to call the Wall Street Journal's complacency on such issues gibberish, nor was he afraid to speak out (among the very first) on behalf of women's free choice of abortion as one mode of regulating births.
In 1962, Murray was seconded to the post of science attach� at the US Embassy in Switzerland. These positions were founded after Sputnik (1957) had aroused the US government's attention to science and technology, in which it could no longer rely upon assured supremacy. The State Department then (as now) hardly knew how to manage Federal involvement in scientific issues. When Murray queried the Ambassador about his expected duties, "His reply was immediate and somewhat unexpected, '(Expletive deleted), that's for you to find out.'" Murray carved out a niche very promptly, leading many overtures toward scientific cooperation and supporting policy education on the interplay of science and technology with public and international affairs. He was often consulted on these matters in later life.
His tour in Switzerland led him to an enduring interest in that country; and it may come as a surprise that this visiting scientist wrote and edited not only a series of volumes on science and other .aspects of contemporary Switzerland but also the first comprehensive history of Switzerland in English.
Meanwhile Murray was as good a citizen of Palo Alto as he was of the world, continuously involved in projects of community improvement.
At the memorial service shortly after his death it was said of him that " if ever there was a twentieth-century Renaissance man, J. Murray Luck was that man. [Over] a span of ninety-four years ... this giant among us was at the task of exploration, of discovery, of research, of teaching, of encouraging, of launching, of serving, of advancing, of writing, of publishing, of improving, all in the advancement of human knowledge and the improvement of human existence."
— Joshua Lederberg
President-emeritus
Rockefeller University
Annual Reviews Board of Directors
