Medicinal chemist honored nationally

Ralph F. Hirschmann, 87, a groundbreaking medicinal chemist formerly of Blue Bell, died of kidney disease June 20 at Meadowood, a retirement community in Worcester.

In 2000, at a White House dinner, Dr. Hirschmann received the National Medal of Science for his work in the development of several widely used drugs.

For 37 years he was affiliated with Merck & Co., where he was director of medicinal chemistry and then vice president for basic research. During his tenure, his team developed or discovered major drugs including Vasotec and Lisinopril for high blood pressure; the antibiotic Primaxin; cholesterol-lowering Mevacor; Proscar for enlarged prostates; and Ivomec, used to combat river blindness.

In 1969 Dr. Hirschmann and his Merck colleagues made front-page news in The Inquirer with the announcement of their creation of an artificial enzyme, ribonuclease.

Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts by speeding up chemical reactions. They are responsible for such things as turning sugar into alcohol and transferring food substances into energy.

The scientists had learned to put together complicated molecules that potentially could mimic functions of proteins or other molecules in the body or inhibit those functions. Merck scientists and scientists from Rockefeller University in New York independently discovered ribonuclease at the same time.

After his mandatory retirement from Merck in West Point, Pa., at 65, Dr. Hirschmann started a career as professor of bioorganic chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he initiated collaborative research in peptidomimetics, substances that mimic the biological action of peptides. Peptides are compounds consisting of two or more amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The research was valuable because peptidomimetics have potential as oral drugs, while peptides must be injected.

While at Penn, Dr. Hirschmann was also a professor at Medical University of South Carolina from 1987 to 1999.

He was an excellent adviser and a good mentor, said Santhosh F. Neelamkavil, a research fellow at Penn from 2003 to 2005. Typically, academic supervisors treat research fellows as subordinates, but "because he came from industry, Dr. Hirschmann treated us as colleagues, and took us out to lunch," Neelamkavil said.

Despite his advanced age, Dr. Hirschmann worked long hours and could remember an article and its page number in professional journals from 20 years ago, said Neelamkavil, now senior scientist at Schering-Plough Research Institute.

Dr. Hirschmann reluctantly retired from Penn in 2006 at 84 when he began dialysis for advanced kidney disease, said his daughter, Carla Hummel.

During his six decades as a chemist, he was responsible for more than 100 patents and wrote or cowrote about 200 publications. Among his honors are the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry and the Arthur C. Cope Medal, both awarded by the American Chemical Society.

A native of Fürth, Germany, Dr. Hirschmann immigrated to the United States in 1937. He earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College. During World War II he served in the Army in the Pacific.

After his discharge, he earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin.

In 1950, he joined Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway, N.J., where he met fellow chemist Lucy Aliminosa. They married in 1951.

Dr. Hirschmann's passions were his work and classical music, his daughter said. In his youth he played the piano and later was a subscriber to the Philadelphia Orchestra. He attended Metropolitan Opera performances and the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Mass.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Dr. Hirschmann is survived by a son, Ralph, and six grandchildren.

A service to celebrate his life will be held at 3 p.m. July 14 at Penn's Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce St.