In memoriam: Robert H. McKay Jr.
Robert Harvey McKay Jr., a longtime professor at the University of Hawaii, died October 17, 2022, in Hawaii at age 95. He had been a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology since 1968.

McKay was born June 12, 1927, to Orpha Vivian Ellis and Robert Harvey McKay Sr. in Cordova, in what was then the U.S. Territory of Alaska. He attended high school in Bremerton, Washington, and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Washington in 1953. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1959 under the mentorship of Richard Fineberg at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was able to isolate an insoluble iron-rich microscopic granule, hemosiderin, from horse spleen. He did his postdoctoral work at Harvard and Brandeis universities.
McKay married Monica McTigue in 1958. The couple and their three children moved to Hawaii in 1963, and McKay started his independent research career as an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Hawaii. During his 34-year career, his research work focused on hematology, specifically iron metabolism in humans.
In a tribute posted to his obituary, a former student remembered being part of McKay’s cancer research and wrote that he was a “wonderful mentor” as well as very “kind and patient” person. He was president and founder of the Shhh Hawaii Charter Chapter of Ohana Kokua, an organization to help people with hearing impairments.
McKay loved to spend long weekends fishing, hiking or playing tennis or poker with his friends and colleagues. He married Anne Winifred Walker in 1998 and enjoyed traveling around the world with her.
Anne McKay died in July 2022. Robert McKay is survived by his children, Karen Fothergill, Jon McKay, and Kevin McKay, and their families; and three stepchildren and their families.
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in People
People highlights or most popular articles

Hope for a cure hangs on research
Amid drastic proposed cuts to biomedical research, rare disease families like Hailey Adkisson’s fight for survival and hope. Without funding, science can’t “catch up” to help the patients who need it most.

Before we’ve lost what we can’t rebuild: Hope for prion disease
Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, a husband-and-wife team racing to cure prion disease, helped develop ION717, an antisense oligonucleotide treatment now in clinical trials. Their mission is personal — and just getting started.

ASBMB members recognized as Allen investigators
Ileana Cristea, Sarah Cohen, Itay Budin and Christopher Obara are among 14 researchers selected as Allen Distinguished Investigators by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

AI can be an asset, ASBMB educators say
Pedagogy experts share how they use artificial intelligence to save time, increase accessibility and prepare students for a changing world.

ASBMB undergraduate education programs foster tomorrow’s scientific minds
Learn how the society empowers educators and the next generation of scientists through community as well as accreditation and professional development programs that support evidence-based teaching and inclusive pedagogy.

Honors for Gagna and Sundquist
Claude Gagna is being honored for the diagnostic tool he developed that uses AI to streamline diagnostics. Wesley Sundquist is being honored for his role in finding that HIV’s capsid was a target for treatment.