In Memoriam
John Marcus Labavitch
Professor of Plant Sciences, Emeritus
UC Davis
1943-2019
John M. Labavitch, UC Davis Professor Emeritus of Plant Sciences, passed away September 24, 2019 at the age of 75. John taught countless students about botany, plant development, physiology and fruit ripening. In addition to his passion for teaching, he was well known and respected for his research focusing on plant cell walls. His passing, brought tributes and memories from colleagues, students, mentees and friends around the world.
John grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. After earning a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in Prof. Peter Raven’s lab, John was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado with Prof. Peter Albersheim. John joined the Department of Pomology (now part of the Department of Plant Sciences) at UC Davis in 1976 and established a research program focused on plant cell walls and postharvest biology in a wide variety of plants, from fruit and nut trees to tomatoes, grapes and grasses. He retired in 2014 but remained active in mentoring, teaching and research activities.
John was widely recognized as an authority on plant cell wall structure and metabolism in relation to aspects of fruit physiology, development and ripening, plant-pathogen interactions, and biofuel production. He pioneered methods for structural analyses of polysaccharides and taught his students and multiple colleagues how to conduct these assays, leading to better understanding of the changes in plant cell walls that occur as fruits ripen and/or are infected by pathogens. These studies led to the description of plant proteins that inhibit pathogen and insect enzymes that digest cell walls and can therefore contribute to plant resistance to these crop "enemies." He also studied the synthesis of pectin-derived oligosaccharides and how those can serve as signals to induce fruit ripening. John was generous with his expertise and was remembered fondly by colleagues around the world for his openness to collaborations and his devotion to research.
Throughout his career, John developed and taught, often with colleagues from other disciplines, multiple undergraduate and graduate courses and core courses of the Plant Biology and Horticulture and Agronomy graduate programs. His students deeply appreciated his commitment to teaching plant biology and his insights and knowledge about how discoveries in research could be linked to solutions to agricultural problems. In 2015, John’s dedication to teaching was recognized by receiving the Academic Senate’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching. The commendation with that award noted: “His devotion to students in the Plant Biology Graduate Program can be characterized in three words: dedication, passion, and encouragement. Students and colleagues feel he far exceeded his expected role in organizing and executing the required core series, creating an interactive and connected foundational series. To students, he conveyed his passion for biology, that it should be studied both for its intrinsic beauty as well as its application to human betterment. And students appreciated his bright and encouraging spirit: He was nothing but enthusiastic and optimistic.”
John Labavitch is survived by his wife, Frances Tennant, who earned a Ph.D. in Genetics at UC Davis, and his brother, Fred, a veterinarian, a sister-in-law and a niece and nephew. A celebration of John's life was held on October 10, 2019, at UC Davis. In his retirement, John continued to be active in the Department, traveled with his wife, and regularly challenged his dog to see who could walk farther. He will be missed by his many friends, colleagues, and former students.
Barbara Blanco-Ulate
Kent Bradford
Ann Powell
Kenneth Shackel
John grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. After earning a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in Prof. Peter Raven’s lab, John was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado with Prof. Peter Albersheim. John joined the Department of Pomology (now part of the Department of Plant Sciences) at UC Davis in 1976 and established a research program focused on plant cell walls and postharvest biology in a wide variety of plants, from fruit and nut trees to tomatoes, grapes and grasses. He retired in 2014 but remained active in mentoring, teaching and research activities.
John was widely recognized as an authority on plant cell wall structure and metabolism in relation to aspects of fruit physiology, development and ripening, plant-pathogen interactions, and biofuel production. He pioneered methods for structural analyses of polysaccharides and taught his students and multiple colleagues how to conduct these assays, leading to better understanding of the changes in plant cell walls that occur as fruits ripen and/or are infected by pathogens. These studies led to the description of plant proteins that inhibit pathogen and insect enzymes that digest cell walls and can therefore contribute to plant resistance to these crop "enemies." He also studied the synthesis of pectin-derived oligosaccharides and how those can serve as signals to induce fruit ripening. John was generous with his expertise and was remembered fondly by colleagues around the world for his openness to collaborations and his devotion to research.
Throughout his career, John developed and taught, often with colleagues from other disciplines, multiple undergraduate and graduate courses and core courses of the Plant Biology and Horticulture and Agronomy graduate programs. His students deeply appreciated his commitment to teaching plant biology and his insights and knowledge about how discoveries in research could be linked to solutions to agricultural problems. In 2015, John’s dedication to teaching was recognized by receiving the Academic Senate’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching. The commendation with that award noted: “His devotion to students in the Plant Biology Graduate Program can be characterized in three words: dedication, passion, and encouragement. Students and colleagues feel he far exceeded his expected role in organizing and executing the required core series, creating an interactive and connected foundational series. To students, he conveyed his passion for biology, that it should be studied both for its intrinsic beauty as well as its application to human betterment. And students appreciated his bright and encouraging spirit: He was nothing but enthusiastic and optimistic.”
John Labavitch is survived by his wife, Frances Tennant, who earned a Ph.D. in Genetics at UC Davis, and his brother, Fred, a veterinarian, a sister-in-law and a niece and nephew. A celebration of John's life was held on October 10, 2019, at UC Davis. In his retirement, John continued to be active in the Department, traveled with his wife, and regularly challenged his dog to see who could walk farther. He will be missed by his many friends, colleagues, and former students.
Barbara Blanco-Ulate
Kent Bradford
Ann Powell
Kenneth Shackel
