Leon Wofsy

Leon Wofsy was Professor of Immunology in the Dept. of Bacteriology and Immunology (1964-1975) and, after its renaming as Microbiology and Immunology, until his retirement in 1984. He served as a department chair from 1967-72 and again from 1974-77. Following reorganization of the biological sciences and establishment in 1989 of the Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology, he was Professor Emeritus in its Division of Immunology (now Immunology and Pathogenesis) until his death. Leon passed away on August 25, 2019, in Alameda, CA, at age 97, having led an extraordinary life.

Leon was born in Stamford, CT, on November 21, 1921, and raised by parents who were deeply committed to social justice. Throughout his life, by his actions and writings, Leon exhibited his commitment to that same goal. After finishing high school in New Haven, CT, his activism intensified when he was an undergraduate studying science at the City College of New York (1938-1942) during the upheavals, nationally and world-wide, caused by the effects of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. At that time, Leon felt that the best path forward to true equality for all, especially impoverished and exploited workers, was through Marxist socialism. After graduation from CCNY, he worked as a chemist at the May Chemical Co. in Newark, NJ for about a year. In September 1943, he was drafted into the US Army, where he had his nose broken by an MP when Leon protested over how the black soldiers were being treated, and was discharged in May 1944. From 1944-49, he was employed as a chemist by Pyridium Corp. in Nepera Park, NY. However, always being a man of high principles, in May 1949, Leon resumed a full-time leadership role in organizing and mobilizing Marxist youth groups, in particular founding the Labor Youth League (1949-1956). These activities made him a target during the "red-baiting" of the McCarthy era.

In 1942, he married Rosalind "Roz" Taub, who shared his ideals. They were an inseparable couple until Roz's death on April 23, 2009, at age 88. They had two children, Carla Wofsy (Prof. of Mathematics, Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque), who died of breast cancer in 2003, and David Wofsy (Prof. of Medicine. Univ. of California, San Francisco), and four grandchildren— Danielle, Grace, Kevin, and Susan. On Nov. 4, 2010, Leon married Gail M. Weininger, who survived him.

In April 1956, Leon became utterly disillusioned with communism when the scope of the atrocities perpetrated by Joseph Stalin came fully to light in an address delivered by Nikita Khrushchev to the 20^th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party. Consequently, Leon severed his connections with the Labor Youth League and renounced any affiliation with the Party (but, never abandoned his unswerving devotion to racial equality, social justice, and peace). He obtained employment as a chemist at the Armstrong Rubber Co. in West Haven, CT, where he worked until January 1958. He then was employed as a teacher at North Branford Junior High School (now Middle School) in North Branford, CT until August 1958. Thereafter, he elected to resume his own academic career in science. He was accepted to and commenced graduate study at Yale University in September 1958 and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in May 1961. For his postdoctoral training and research, Leon joined the laboratory of S.J. (Seymour Jonathan) Singer (1924-2017) in the then-Department of Biology (now Division of Biological Sciences) at UC San Diego. In a series of ground-breaking papers, Leon applied his chemical perspective to the analysis of the antigen recognition sites of immunoglobulins through the development of "affinity labeling" [Wofsy L, Metzger H, Singer SJ (1962) Biochemistry 1: 1031-1039]. On the basis of this innovation in immunochemistry and his other accomplishments in the Singer lab, Leon was offered faculty appointments at a number of other institutions, which, shamefully, rescinded them on the basis of his prior political activity. To the great credit of UC, Leon was appointed to the faculty at UC Berkeley as of July 1, 1964, at age 42.

After coming to Berkeley, aside from applying affinity labeling to a variety of other antibodies, as well as to both acetylcholine receptors [Changeux JP, Podleski TR, Wofsy L (1967) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 58: 2063-2070] and the enzyme acetylcholinesterase [Wofsy L, Michaeli D (1967) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 58: 2296-2298], Leon and his group devised methods for purifying antibodies and whole cells by affinity chromatography. To gain greater understanding of what makes the surfaces of lymphocytes unique, Leon and his co-workers conceived of a novel approach for identifying cell-surface molecules, namely the development and application of "hapten-sandwich labeling" [Wofsy L (1983) Methods Enzymol 92: 472-488], which allowed for enhanced detection by amplifing the signal from the initial binding of a single chemically-haptenized antibody molecule via the binding of multiple anti-hapten antibodies covalently conjugated to appropriate tags for visualization by either fluorescence or electron microscopy. Moreover, Leon and his team devised approaches using antibodies against specific cell-surface antigens initially as a means to directly deliver cytoxic agents to cancer cells and later to target vesicles to lymphocytes and other cell types as a method to deliver the contents of those vesicles into the cells via membrane fusion [Godfrey W, Doe B, Wofsy L (1983) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 80: 2267-2271].

Equivalent to his impact as a scientist and teacher, and as an especially empathetic mentor to the trainees in his laboratory and department, Leon demonstrated in his academic life (as he had in his youth) great bravery and personal sacrifice in pursuit of his vision of what a democratic institution and a democratic society should be. Even though just newly hired, Leon was an outspoken leader among the faculty in supporting Berkeley students during the Free Speech Movement (FSM; 1964-65). It should be recalled that in the "Freedom Summer" of 1964, prior to the 1964-65 academic year, large numbers of students from across the USA had volunteered to travel to the South to protest against Jim Crow laws, to help register Black voters, and demand civil rights for all. With the onset of the FSM, businessman Edwin Wendell Pauley Sr. (1903-1981), who served for more than 30 years (1940-72) as a UC Regent, was particularly upset about the student unrest. Pauley revealed that throughout the 1950s the FBI had secretly provided to UC files on professors it was considering hiring. Pauley tried to use the FBI dossier on Leon, which recounted his prior radical political activism, to impune his integrity and motives, but to no avail. Leon's behind-the-scenes persuasion was crucial in the final vote of the Faculty Senate that supported the demands of the FSM students, which included the right to organize and protest for civil rights. In May 1969, when the protests about People's Park turned violent (one student had been killed and another blinded), Wofsy went to Sacramento with a delegation of other Cal faculty and, at a hearing, challenged then-California Governor (1967-1975) Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) to end the repressive measures Reagan had imposed, including strong-arm tactics of the local police, calling in the National Guard, and tear-gassing of the campus. Leon opposed the Vietnam War until the day that conflict ended in 1975; he spoke out against racism in the USA and against apartheid in South Africa until that overt policy ended in 1994; he was vocal in his support of progressive movements in Latin America; and, beginning in the late 1970s, he mobilized efforts to increase the number of women and persons of color in the sciences and in the broader academic community and was a staunch supporter of any and all such initiatives.

After his retirement, Leon continued to be engaged in many activities confronting domestic social issues and foreign policy, including writing extensively on the same and related topics. In 1986, he edited a book on the Cold War, entitled Before the Point of No Return (Monthly Review Press, New York, NY). In 1992, Leon was a primary organizer of the first national conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism on behalf of the Committees of Correspondence, which was held in Berkeley from July 17-19, 1992. In fact, in 1995, Leon declared himself a Democratic Socialist, as has, for example, current US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In the same year, Leon published a memoir, Looking for the Future: A Personal Connection to Yesterday's Great Expectations, Today's Reality, and Tomorrow's Hope (I.W. Rose Press, Oakland, CA), the title of which provides a telling synopsis of its contents.

In 1999, for the Regional Oral History Project of California, Leon was interviewed about his experiences before and after joining the UC Berkeley faculty and a complete transcript is available in the Regional Oral History Office at the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus. Starting in May 2009 and continuing until just a month before his death, Leon expressed his opinions, outrage, and/or recommendations in an on-line blog, whose contents are still available (http://leonsoped.blogspot.com/). In 2016-17, Leon also was interviewed extensively by members of the staff of the Berkeley Historical Society and those interviews are deposited in their archives as well as available on-line as a set of four, quite riveting, videos on YouTube. (Search for "Leon Wofsy")

Leon never stopped hoping for, and actively working towards, a more just, more peaceful world. He was a scrupulously honest, courageous, and inspirational man. On a personal note, Leon was the Chair of the then-Department of Bacteriology & Immunology at UC Berkeley when I joined the faculty of that department on July 1, 1974. To me, Leon was the epitome of a righteous man. He was invariably gentle and generous. Leon always made me feel respected and valued. The fact that we shared the same ethos and progressivism about politics and society seemed secondary to the way he treated me. When I was granted tenure in 1980, to celebrate, Leon took me to my very first Golden State Warriors game. Led by Rick Barry, the team had won the NBA Championship in 1975, but would not do so again for another 40 years, when Stephen Curry and his supporting cast emerged. I have the utmost respect, admiration, and affection for Leon and cherish my memories of him, and miss being the recipient of his wisdom and kindness.

Respectfully submitted,

Jeremy Thorner, Professor Emeritus, BBS Div., MCB Dept., UC Berkeley
2021