Obituary: Roos, professor emeritus, 92

Albert Roos, M.D., professor emeritus of anesthesiology and of cell biology and physiology, died Tuesday, June 5, 2007. He was 92.

A native of Leiden, Netherlands, Roos trained as a physician there and in the United States, but his true interest was in scientific research. He joined the School of Medicine in 1946 and remained until his retirement in 1992.

Roos was originally a fellow in cardiology, then an instructor in physiology. He became director of the thoracic physiology lab in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, joined the Division of Anesthesiology and later joined the Department of Physiology, in which he worked for the last 25 years of his career. There he did pioneering research on intracellular pH, for which he became internationally renowned. His family reports that he often said those years were his happiest and most productive.

When he retired, he ended a 44-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, at that time the longest continuously funded research grant in the agency’s history. He taught generations of medical students, some of whom treated him in the last years of his life.

Roos was an accomplished pianist until his last years when arthritis and hearing loss severely diminished his playing capacity. He was an ardent Mozart devotee.

Roos is survived by his wife of 60 years, Mary Elizabeth “Lib” Roos; brother, Jacques of France; sons, Jack and Albert; daughter-in-law, Rosalind; and three grandchildren.

A gathering in his honor will be held at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI St. Louis), 134 West Madison Ave., St. Louis, Mo., 63122.