In memoriam: Robert Metrione

Robert Michael Metrione died June 18 in Neptune, New Jersey, at age 88. He was a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for almost 50 years, and before his retirement, he served more than three decades as a professor of biochemistry at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Robert Metrione

Metrione was born in Livingston, New Jersey to Clara and Durand Metrione on August 22, 1933. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Bowling Green University, where he met his future wife, Mary Ann Luedeke. He went on to receive a doctorate at the University of Nebraska and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.

Metrione’s final research studies focused on DNA polymerase alpha, an enzyme complex that plays a role in launching DNA replication among eukaryotes. He also explored the inhibition of dipeptidyl aminopeptidase, an enzyme that aids in breaking proteins and peptides into their constituent amino acids.

Beyond his academic career, Metrione was known for his devotion to sharing jokes and silly faces with younger family members, slamming tennis balls, tending his community garden plot and crafting cavatelli, a kind of small pasta. He and his wife, Mary Ann, were both active in the local Horticultural Society.

Metrione’s wife, a teacher turned speech pathologist, died in August 2020. He is survived by his sister-in-law, Judy Gary and husband Bruce; sister-in-law, Arlene; children, Dan and Lori Metrione, Linda Lutz, Laura McBride, and Ellen and Brian Gibbons; and grandchildren, Hollie, Carly, Emily, Alec, Kelly, Brian and Maeve.