Paul Greengard, Ph.D. (1925‐2019)

Paul Greengard was found unresponsive on the floor of his home on East 63rd Street in Manhattan early in the morning of April 13, 2019, by his housekeeper who was arriving to begin her day. Emergency services were summoned and transported Greengard to the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center at the 68th Street and York Avenue in Manhattan, but he never regained consciousness, spontaneous respirations, or cardiac rhythm. At the time of his passing, Paul was aged 93 years, and every day, he enjoyed the richness that was his life devoted to his science and to his wife, sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard, who survives him. Paul’s favorite name for Ursula was “Dolly”, and he was as smitten with and enchanted by her as was humanly possible. Over the past decades, the originality and soulfulness of Ursula’s work had grown rapidly, garnering her a welldeserved international reputation as a singular talent. Paul was her biggest fan and cheerleader. Back at the laboratory and for most of the past 30 years, at any one time, Paul oversaw graduate students and fellows who totaled between 30 and 50 in number. His brilliance was often breathtaking as he personally ran weekly laboratory meetings, with each week’s session of one or two hours devoted to the progress of a single student. The student was expected to project well-labeled images of his or her primary data, perform a careful recitation of each and every step of the protocol, and then share with Paul and the laboratory whatever tentative conclusions he or she had drawn. Typically, the student’s version of this narrative was followed by comments from Paul who spoke the definitive interpretation, often in a semimonotone aimed at elucidation but not humiliation. Paul often broke up these moments with his