Dr. David Frederick Weber Obituary (1939

Dr. David Frederick Weber of Bloomington passed away peacefully on Thursday April 15, 2021 surrounded by his loving family. Funeral services will be held 1:00pm Thursday, April 22, officiated by Pastor Chuck Bahn at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bloomington IL. Prior to the service, there will be an open visitation from 11:00am to 1:00pm at the church. Interment will follow at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington. A 'celebration of life' party is being planned for August 1st - contact Darlene for details. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ISU School of Biological Sciences https://giving.illinoisstate.edu/fund/school-of-biological-sciences-general-fund/ or a charitable organization of your choice. Dave was born in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 18, 1939 to Walter J. Weber and Marguerite (Anliker) Weber. On August 17, 1963 he married his graduate school sweetheart, Darlene Marie Hohman from Tarentum, Pennsylvania. He is survived by Darlene, his two children Julilynne Weber (Martin Jr.) Rink of Park Ridge, IL, and Mark David (Cara Stalter) Weber of Bloomington. Dave and Darlene have a legacy of seven grandchildren: Samantha, Alexander, Michal, and Andrew Weber, Jake, Danielle, and Kendall Rink. He was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Wendy Suzanne Weber, his loving sister Susan Johnson and genius younger brother, Steven Weber. Dr. Weber was a nationally recognized geneticist, pioneering researcher, outstanding professor, and mentor to many young scientists. His undergraduate course in genetics, led by Dr. Wayne Keim at Purdue University sparked a 60 year's exploration in the field of maize cytology, the study of the chromosomes in corn. Between his junior and senior year, he collaborated with Dr. Jim Brewbaker at Cold Spring Harbor Research Station, New York. Upon graduation he became a research/teaching assistant at Indiana University under Dr. Marcus Rhodes. This led to completion of a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Botany. His doctoral thesis "On the Interaction of Nonhomologous Segments of Chromosomes in Zea Mays" was published in 1967. Illinois State University brought Dave to the School of Biological Sciences in that year, where he taught genetics, cytology and cytogenetics. During his 35 years at ISU he became a Full Professor and was recognized for obtaining over a million dollars in research grants from the Atomic Energy Commission, National Science Foundation and USDA. He planted, pollinated, harvested, and analyzed two generations of research corn annually, with summer crops in Indiana and Illinois, and winter crops in Hawaii or Chili. This was done in conjunction with his responsibilities teaching and serving on committees at ISU. His lab partner and administrative assistant at ISU, Marti Schneerman, contributed greatly to his research efforts. Dave was an outstanding professor; he focused on each student as an individual. He worked along with his graduate students both in the laboratory and in the field. Dr. Weber was an outstanding mentor. He was caring, demanding and supportive of his graduate students. His research grants continued after retirement. This allowed him to teach microscopy to graduate, undergraduate and advanced placement high school students at Iowa State University and Illinois State University. His lifelong study in use of monosomics to map cloned DNA fragments and the use of haploids in corn plant breeding led to a collaboration with AgReliant Seed that ended in 2019. His research led to publications in Genetics, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences and Advances in Agronomy vol. 123, 2014. Although Dave used maize as his research organism (corn is a pillar of classical genetics) the results of his work generated far-reaching implications both in the fundamental understanding of chromosome mechanics as well as advances in agronomic improvement of corn. Dave's professional organizations included Phi Sigma Biological Sciences Honor Society, Sigma Xi, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and Genetics Society of America. As a member of the Maize Genetics Cooperative, he attended conferences and published research articles in their annual newsletter. He presented lectures and posters at these conferences and at the International Congress of Genetics regularly. His international collaborations led to Sabbatical research studies at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, CSIRO, Australia, University of Western Ontario, Canada, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Iowa State University, and University of Hawaii. It also allowed him to accept a request to train scientists in Thailand on techniques of biochemical analysis of DNA. Dave enjoyed traveling around the world and throughout the US with his wife and family. He was a gifted photographer and relished sharing his photos and stories with the KodaRoamers Camera Club, where he was a longtime member and past President and at women's groups at Trinity Lutheran Church. Through ISU's cultural exchange program, he was privileged to spend seven weeks studying agriculture and health facilities in cities and rural areas of China in two separate trips. His love of travel took him on extended trips to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Thailand, Singapore, the Baltic States, Egypt, South America, Caribbean, Central America, Greece, Croatia, Alaska and Antarctica. His favorite haunts were the National Parks (mountains, beaches, canyons, swamps, and deserts). There was no road he did not want to explore. A technophile, he was an early adopter of innovation and served as a founding member of the B/N Apple Mac Users Club. Dave enjoyed playing the saxophone throughout his life, especially in the Purdue All-American marching band. He loved participating in the Young Men's Club and was an active member of Trinity Lutheran Church. As a scientist, Dr. Weber knew the supremacy of science in the empirical world, yet he was a man of faith. He knew that science gives us knowledge; faith grants us wisdom. Dave was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer in March of 2016, but he simply refused to die from the cancer. Instead, he chose to thrive with it and lived life to the fullest, traveling the globe and relishing his time with his children and grandchildren. His family was blessed to spend time with him during his week in hospice - shared so many funny and crazy stories of our adventures together and we know he enjoyed listening and our togetherness. We witnessed his last breath and prayed together through our tears, rejoicing in the knowledge that he is free from discomfort and dancing in heaven with his Father and family. He was 81 years young, and in his words, he "had a great life!"