Roy T. Eddleman passed peacefully at his home in Beverly Hills, California on Saturday, June 11th at age 82. He was born February 18, 1940 in Kannapolis, North Carolina to Henry B. and Francis Miller Eddleman. Immensely inquisitive and a knowledge seeker from an early age, in 1958 a reporter for The Charlotte News wrote “The assignment sounded easy: Interview a high school student about a science exhibit. But five minutes with Roy Eddleman and a simple minded reporter was lost”. Roy credited inspiration for his early experiments in hydroponics to an argument with his science teacher. “I have always been curious”, Roy explained at age 18.
Roy Truman Eddleman, Feb 18, 1940 – June 11, 2022
Science captivated Roy’s imagination and attention throughout his life. After high school, Roy attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the early 1960s, however, Roy left school before graduating and moved to Los Angeles, California selling laboratory equipment for the Scientific Products Company. Later he worked for Cal Biochem and in 1970, Roy founded Spectrum, Inc. Spectrum soon became a global leader in hollow fiber and tubular mass transfer membranes for bioprocessing of recombinant proteins, pharmaceuticals and diagnostic therapeutics. Uncommonly intelligent and a multidimensional thinker, Roy leveraged his youthful curiosity and enthusiasm to reinvent biochemical processing and pharmaceuticals production by founding or leading eight other related companies and holding multiple patents on products and processes. The direct result; reduced cost for drug development; getting medicines to market faster; and, a dramatic increase in velocity-to-cure for thousands of diseases. Spectrum merged into Repligen Corporation (RGEN) in 2017.
Roy’s professional path was paralleled by a lifetime of philanthropy. He participated in and/or founded the Roy Eddleman Institute at the Chemical Heritage Foundation; Roy Eddleman Research Museum at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now Science History Institute); EPIC Permanent Charities; REIMS Permanent Foundation; Foundation for Educational Research; and, the Life Sciences Foundation. Roy was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.
In the early years of the AIDS crisis, creating the Foundation for Educational Research, Roy was there with an open heart and an open checkbook. He, along with others, organized an annual event called Labor Day LA, which over the years raised in excess of two million dollars to help alleviate the suffering associated with an almost certain death sentence from that horrible epidemic. This was at a time when there was no hope of a cure, no life prolonging drugs, and no government support. Creating Labor Day LA as a solely volunteer run organization, Roy taught a generation of young people about philanthropy, giving back, and empowerment when confronting a seemingly hopeless terminal illness.
But it was his friendships that were his most passionate pursuit. Modest about his own accolades, he championed those around him and he included those he cared for in a remarkable lifetime journey. Roy could change the course of a day in a moment: Invited to his home in Los Angeles for lunch at noon, guests might unexpectedly find themselves in Hawaii for dinner at 8. For decades, he opened his home for weekly dinner parties and annual holiday celebrations. He thrived when others enjoyed themselves socially, intellectually, and in support of an important cause. Roy crafted his world and his days in his own vision. In Roy’s world, surrounded by friends, everything was new, everything was shiny, everything was curious.
Always a futurist, Roy shifted his attention in recent years to the quantum sciences, confident discoveries yet made would change the course of mankind. With the intent of promoting the discipline and supporting future revolutionary innovation, he refocused his philanthropy on encouraging young scientists in this nascent field. Roy said, “Quantum science holds significant promises for humanity. To realize its fullest potential, we need to provide adequate support to young scientists who want to pursue careers in the field.” To this end, he donated generously to the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of California Irvine, and Cal Tech. Significantly, as a key focus of his legacy, he established the Eddleman Quantum Institute to continue to build on and enhance these efforts and he funded “Eddleman Fellowships” awarded annually to students at each of the three schools.
He is further survived, and preceded, by his family of friends. Roy gave of himself generously and hundreds of friends throughout the world will carry on his legacy of adventure, innovation, intellectual curiosity, and cherishing those in your life. Roy will live on in the minds of those who knew him, and the hearts of those who loved him.
A tribute event will be held later this summer in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, tax deductible donations may be sent to “EPIC – Eddleman Combined Fellowships Fund”; Attn: Prof. William J Evans; University of California at Irvine; Irvine, CA. 92697. These funds will be used to further fund the three fellowship programs at the schools mentioned above.
