Kessel, Richard Glen

Richard Glen Kessel, 81, of Rapid City, S.D., passed away Wednesday, March 13, 2013. Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 19, at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service, 605 Kirkwood Ave., Iowa City. Visitation will be one hour before the service.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be directed to Richard G. Kessel Medical Scholarship Fund, c/o University of Iowa Foundation, 1 West Park Rd., Iowa City, IA 52242.

Richard was born July 19, 1931, in Fairfield, Iowa, the son of Oscar G. Kessel and Hazel M. (Humston) Kessel. He graduated from Fairfield Public High School in 1949, and then attended Parsons College in Fairfield and received a B. S.degree summa cum laude in chemistry in 1953. He entered the University of Iowa Medical School in 1953, but financial constraints forced a change in plans. He enrolled in the Graduate College of the University of Iowa in Biological Sciences in 1954 and received a M.S. degree in 1956 and Ph.D. in 1959. His training and research for the Ph.D. were in the area of cell structure and function and involved the use of the transmission electron microscope which was a new and important tool in the investigation of cell structure and function at that time. Subsequent research tools used included scanning electron microscopy, cell culture, autoradiography, ultrastructural cytochemistry and freeze fracture studies on cell membranes.

Following graduation, Kessel accepted a teaching and research position in the Anatomy Department of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. From 1959-1961, he was instructor and then assistant professor of Anatomy there.

In 1961, he accepted an invitation to return to the Biology Department at the University of Iowa. He remained in this department as assistant professor, associate professor and then professor until retirement in 1997. During his tenure at the University of Iowa, Kessel performed research in cell and developmental biology and taught undergraduates and graduate students in cell biology, electron microscopy and microscopic anatomy (histology). During this time he published some 120 scientific research and review articles and five books. Much of his research dealt with the biology of the female gamete and cell organelle structure and function. His last book finished shortly before retirement was Basic Medical Histology, published by Oxford University Press in 1997. He also collaborated with his colleague at Iowa, Professor H.W. Beams, on the effects of high centrifugal force on living cells.

Kessel taught the first course in Transmission Electron Microscopy at the University of Iowa. He was the first recipient of a five year U.S. Public Health Service Research Career Development Award at the University of Iowa and served as chairman of the University Scanning Electron Microscope Steering Committee for many years. He was also a program director of a U.S. Public Health Service-sponsored Developmental Biology Training Grant for many years. The training grant provided tuition support as well as financial support for the research activities of those graduate students appointed to this grant. He was a member of several university committees, including the University Research Council (chairman) and Library Committee (chairman). Over a period of more than three decades, he taught thousands of pre-professional students in his undergraduate lecture-laboratory course in cell, tissue and organ biology.

Professional society memberships included the American Association of Anatomists, Society of Developmental Biology, American Society for Cell Biology, Microscopy Society, Physiology and Biophysical Societies, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, and Beta, Beta, Beta. He was a life member of the Iowa Alumni Association. He is listed in Who's Who in America. Other associations include the Presidents Club of the University of Iowa, Dean's Club of the University of Iowa College of liberal Arts, the 1847 Society of the University of Iowa and the Whitman Society of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass.

Kessel established the Richard G. Kessel Medical Scholarship at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, the Richard G. Kessel Scholarship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, and the Richard G. Kessel Embryology Course Scholarship at the MBL in Woods Hole, Mass. He also established and funded a visiting lecturer program for the Embryology Course at the MBL. Kessel was a student in the Embryology Course at the MBL in 1957.

Following retirement, Kessel lived for eight years at Melrose Meadows in Iowa City. In late November 2012, he moved to Rapid City, S.D., to be close to his nearest living relatives, a nephew, Stephen M. Babbitt III, a professor at Black Hills State University, and his wife, Dr. Nancy Babbitt, a physician in Rapid City. Shortly after moving to Rapid City, Kessel was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and spent his ensuing time at Somerset Retirement Residence and Hospice House, both in Rapid City.

Kessel was preceded in death by his parents; a sister, Willa Kessel Babbitt; and a brother-in-law, Stephen M. Babbitt II.

He is survived by two nephews, Stephen M. Babbitt III and family of Rapid City, S.D., and Bret Richard Babbitt and family of Livermore, Calif.; and a niece, Darcy Jean Babbitt of Oakland, Calif.

Online condolences may be directed to .

Published March 17, 2013 in The Gazette