Wylie Vale: Neuroendocrine master

To die at the height of a man's career, the highest moment of his effort here in this world, universally honored and admired, to die while great issues are still commanding the whole of his interest, to be taken from us at a moment when he could already see ultimate success in view is not the most unenviable of fates. Winston Churchill (1940) Wylie Vale, professor and head of the Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology at The Salk Institute, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and leader in the field of neuroendocrinology, passed away in his sleep on January 3, 2012 while vacationing in Hawaii. He was 70 years old and is survived by his wife Betty, his daughters Elizabeth and Susannah, his granddaughter Celeste, his brother Shannon, and his father Wylie. Wylie Vale. Wylie grew up near Houston; he attended St. John's School and received his Bachelor's degree at Rice University. His friends recall that young Wylie always put himself in the most rigorous and competitive environment that he could find. In football two on one drills, Wylie, at 145 lb, would get paired against Big Al (6 ft, 5 in and 235 lb) or Doc Schwartz (6 ft, 5 in and 240 lb) on the other side of the line … he loved the odds. Wylie spent most of his career characterizing the hypothalamic hormones and other neuroendocrine peptides that regulate thyroid function, growth, reproduction, and response to stress. The presence of hypothalamic releasing factors …