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Roderic Maurice Kauai Dale ’70

A picture of Roderic Dale

Roderic Maurice Kauai Dale ’70, November 4, 2008, in Portland, after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. Rod was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He met Gay Walker ’69 at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. They were engaged in summer 1965, and married in summer 1968 in the Eliot Hall chapel with a reception in the Faculty Office Building lounge. While at Reed, Rod and Bobby Zurer ’69 edited and published the first and only issue of the ÃÛÌÒÉç Science Journal. Rod received a BA from Reed in chemistry, and was accepted for graduate study at Yale University. The couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and subsequently lived in Madison and then Guilford, where they stayed for 21 years. Rod earned a PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale in 1975, and Gay worked at the Yale University Library. After completing a research assistantship at Yale, he taught biology for two years at the University of Minnesota while Gay remained in Connecticut. Rod served as vice president for research and lab operations at International Biotechnologies, before starting a DNA-synthesizer firm, Biotix, and a company to sell DNA chemicals. In 1989, Rod and Gay founded Oligos Etc. This contract manufacturer of oligonucleotides, DNA and RNA, sold to research facilities, academic and government institutions, forensic labs, and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Dedicated to developing therapeutic products to address a wide range of diseases, Rod carried out extensive research with RNA chemistry, developing many sequence-specific anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial products that are being taken forward by others. Survivors include Gay, now special collections librarian at Reed; two daughters; and two brothers.

Appeared in Reed magazine: February 2009