Robert (Bob) Alan Shapiro died on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 in Portland, Oregon at age 70. Bob was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts to Leon N. Shapiro and Rose Kurhan Shapiro.

He graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1976 and received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1985. He moved to Seattle and worked at the University of Washington, Oncogen, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. In 2002, he joined the department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. In 2011, Bob continued his work at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison, retiring in 2016. A list of his publications can be found here.

Bob was a scientist by trade and by inclination. A self-described lab rat, he was a master craftsman in the worlds of molecular biology and neuroendocrinology. He was a dedicated mentor to younger scientists, and a skilled explainer of scientific topics in plain language, whether that was cloning with plasmids, the function of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, or the expression of estrogen in primate brains.

He was a truly brilliant guitar player, and loved to share music with others. He was an expert fingerpicker and jazz guitarist, and spent hours a day in retirement practicing for appearances with his bands.

He was never content to walk a path defined by others, and had a healthy disdain for most forms of authority and convention. His interests and enthusiasms were as wide as they were felt at high-voltage: Family. Friends. Travel. Languages. River trips. How right the hippies were all along. He commuted by bike, even in the Wisconsin winters. He had a ribald streak. He loved food, but found pretension intolerable – if it came on a plastic table under fluorescent lights, that was all for the better.

His wisdom, humor, and joie de vivre will always be remembered and missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, N. Scrantz Lersch, his children Julie Dulay and Jack Shapiro, his grandchildren Russell and Harrison Dulay and Theodore and Lily Shapiro, and his siblings Carol and James Shapiro.

A celebration of life will be held April 5, 2025 in Portland, OR. Donations in Bob’s honor can be made to the Artist Mentorship Program (AMP), or The Street Trust.