KARL HUGO MUENCH's Obituary
Dr. Karl H. Muench died peacefully March 26, 2023 at the age of 88 in the presence of his loving and devoted wife, Anyltha (“Any”), in Mercy Hospital near the landmark Coconut Grove home they had built in 1977. He was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church for more than 50 years and served as a trustee there. He and Any have had a wide circle of friends. He enjoyed his boat sometimes for picnics with family and friends, and sometimes on weekends in the Keys, in the Everglades, and even to Bimini with students. In his physical prime he was a scuba diver. In recent years his recreation has centered on genealogy, and he maintained a family tree of more than 20,000 souls with ancient roots.
At 87 years he was still active as Professor of Medicine at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, where he had started in1965 as an Instructor. He had been recruited by the late Dr. William J. Harrington with a nucleus of colleagues mostly from Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. Over those 56 years he had served in many capacities, including director of the sickle cell center, chief of the Gaucher disease treatment program, and head of the Ph.D-to-M.D. program, and he held appointments in the departments of biochemistry and pediatrics as well as his primary appointment in the department of medicine in which he served as the first chief of the Division of Genetic Medicine, from 1968 to 2009. He was a Faculty Research Associate of the American Cancer Society (1965-70), named a Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine (1969), Scholar of the Leukemia Society of America (1971-76), and he received a Research Career Development Award of the U.S. Public Health Service (1971-76).
He became a Diplomate in Clinical Genetics of the American Board of Medical Genetics in 1982, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians in l985 and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics in 1993. In 2001 he was the Inaugural Faculty Representative of the Council on Honorable and Professional Conduct.
In other appointments Karl was a visiting scientist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, in the summer of 1970 with sponsor, Professor Brian Hartley, and a visiting scholar in the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University in the summer of1980 with sponsor, Professor Charles Yanofsky.
Karl served on the editorial board of the Year Book of Cancer, 1973-1985; on the National Science Foundation Advisory Panel for Molecular Biology, 1978-1981; and on the steering committee of the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease, 1979-1982. In March, 1982 and again in April, 1983 he traveled to Kuwait as a Consultant in Medical Genetics to the Ministry of Public Health.
His professional accomplishments included serving as the Ph.D. mentor for five candidates. His greatest professional commitment and devotion was teaching medical students, and he had thousands of them. He founded the original, required course in medical genetics at UMSM in 1975, and his mutual love with students was legendary in his time. Many became his lifelong friends, starting from the bring-your-own-brown-bag lunches that he hosted after every lecture. He viewed his course in medical genetics as an introduction to all of medicine. He embodied and projected his blending of science with traditional doctor-patient bonding. He helped students understand how the scientist at the bench merged with the physician at the bedside and could be the same person. His lectures were rich in allusions connecting genetics with students’ existing interests in history, literature, art, sports, animals, and music. He reassured students, calling them “snowflakes,” for their unique personal qualities, and he entertained students at his home, sometimes an entire class at once. His textbook, Genetic Medicine, was favorably reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine. In 2002 a first-year student, attending a clinic, made an original, correct diagnosis of a chromosomal disorder in a 52-year-old man who had been seen by countless doctors for decades. That student became the first of many to receive the accolade, “Genetics Hall of Fame” in Muench’s course. He received George Paff Awards for Teaching Excellence in 1986,1993,1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 with nominations in virtually every other year. He was voted Best Basic Science Professor by MD graduates in 1998. He was the Commencement Speaker for MD graduation in 1990, Commencement Grand Marshall in 1997, and Commencement Faculty Marshall in 2002.
Karl was born May 3, 1934 in Saint Louis, son of attorney Albert F. Muench (1903-1980) and Virginia Kueter (1907-1990). The family included sister Ruth and brother Laurence, who also was to become a physician. In 1938 they moved to Washington D.C., where Albert joined the U.S. Housing Authority. In 1942 Albert was assigned to the Chicago office, and the family settled in suburban Evanston. Karl always reflected on his good fortune to have attended the Evanston public schools. At the age of 10 he asked his father’s permission to become a newsboy, and until leaving for college in 1952 he delivered the morning weekly Evanston Review, pulling his wagon over the route at 6 a.m., memorably in Chicago winters as well as year-round. Summer jobs went from lawn mowing to odd-jobs to hospital orderly to surgical scrub nurse (in college years). A boyhood hobby was stamp collecting.
At 12 years Karl joined the Boy Scouts, and he loved camping, even in winter in the snow. With his newsboy earnings he paid for Boy Scout summer camp in Michigan, and he was inducted there as an Ordeal Member of the Order of the Arrow. In 1948 he became an Eagle Scout. Decades later in Miami he served as an assistant scoutmaster.
For his first three years in Evanston Township High School (ETHS) Karl competed on the cross-country team in the fall and as a half-miler on the winter and spring track teams. He rated himself as an “also-ran” but managed to place in some races and won his letter “E” for his sweater. By chance while watching Olympic try-outs at Northwestern University’s Dyche stadium he was thrilled to meet Jesse Owens, the 1936 Berlin champion Olympic sprinter and four-gold-medal winner.
He excelled academically and in his senior year at ETHS was named editor-in-chief of the national prizewinning school newspaper, The Evanstonian. In that role he interviewed the Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, one of the six survivors described in the book, Hiroshima, by John Hersey.
Karl’s major interest was science, and with 18,000 others nationwide in his senior year he entered the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, committing to a research project and written examination. He placed among the top 40 contenders, winning a trip to Washington for a week of further examinations, visits with top scientists, and tours of the National Institutes of Health and other landmarks, including the White House, where he was honored to meet President Harry Truman in the Oval Office. At the final dinner event Karl was astonished to receive first place, the Grand National Scholarship Award. On the next day he was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1952 Karl gave a valedictory address at his ETHS graduation. He had applied for admission to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and he was accepted by all three with full scholarships. He chose Princeton, where he majored in chemistry and once sat just behind Albert Einstein at a lecture. Karl’s senior research thesis was published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. In 1956 he was graduated with an A.B degree, magna cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
In 1956 Karl accepted a full scholarship to Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. There he was inspired by Dr. Arthur Kornberg and his colleagues. In 1957 Karl followed the directions of Kornberg in synthesizing DNA for a student laboratory exercise, copying the steps that brought the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology to Kornberg in 1959. Karl was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society in his junior year and served as its president in his senior year. In 1960 Karl received the Borden Undergraduate Research Award and the M.D. degree magna cum laude, a distinction granted only four
times previously in the school’s history.
In 1961 after his internship in straight medicine at Barnes Hospital in Saint Louis, Karl followed Kornberg’s faculty to Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California as a postdoctoral fellow of his mentor, Dr. Paul Berg, who was destined to receive the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1980. During his years at Stanford Karl was grateful and humbled to interact with many of the great historical founders of biochemistry and genetics. Among friends there were Drs. Reiji Okazaki and his wife, Tsuneko. Reiji had witnessed the bombing of Hiroshima from a hill on the city periphery. He later discovered the intermediates in DNA synthesis that are named Okazaki fragments in his honor.
In 2005 Karl had a major heart attack, and he thanked his doctors for saving his life. They were his former students.
His recent hospitalization at Mercy hospital was caused by a lymphoma in the prostate as a result of his CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which caused urine obstruction backing up into the kidneys resulting in required dialysis. Karl was cured of his leukemia by his own invention of Leukapheresis over 48 years ago in his UM lab. However the kidney damage and heart failure contributed to the eventual multiple organ failure which caused his death. His wife, Any, was by his side in the hospital throughout the three months hospitalized, never going home. Karl then went home for two wonderful months receiving family & friends visiting for dinners until Saturday, March 25, when he returned to Mercy with difficulty breathing. He died in less than 20 hours. The family is deeply grateful to his doctors which included many former students.
Karl is survived by his adoring wife of 46 years, Any Muench and their children Dr. Michael Muench (Rebecca Duncan), & grandsons Arlo and Wystan; and Natalie Muench Albainy (Mike) & grandchildren Vivianna, Hugo, Lulu and Nellie. In addition, he is survived by three daughters from a previous marriage: Julia Muench (Ken), grandchildren Camille (Philip), great granddaughter Anastasia, grandson Kevin (Dale); Laura Muench Escardo (Jose), granddaughter Cristina; and Anita Muench Poonawala (Karim) and grandchildren Alia (Julio) Sofia, Rahim. Karl admitted that he depended on Any to remember the birthdays of all of the grandchildren. Any, a devoted grandmother, is professionally a CPA, a famous hostess and amateur chef and is a prominent volunteer in Miami school and church organizations, including the Young Patronesses of the Opera, in which she shared Karl’s immense love of opera. Karl will be remembered as a deeply curious and lifelong student, and as a physician and man guided by a deep abiding respect for all human beings , of all walks of life. Visitation will be held at VanOrsdel Funeral Home, 4600 8th Street, Coral Gables, Friday, April 21, 2:00-4:00 pm. Service will be held Saturday, April 22, 10:30 am at Plymouth Congregational Church, 3400 Devon Road, Coconut Grove.
In lieu of flowers, donations in honor of Dr. Karl Muench may be made to Plymouth Congregational Church, 3400 Devon Road, Miami, FL 33133 or Young Patronesses of the Opera (www.ypo-miami.org/donate).
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