Abstract
Dr. Matthew (Theo) J. van Zwieten, age 74 of Furlong, Pennsylvania, passed peacefully on December 1, 2019. Dr. van Zwieten was born in Zeist, The Netherlands, in 1945. In 1950, the van Zwietens immigrated to Australia and 5 years later to Rosemead, California. Several days after Theo’s arrival in the United States, he met his future wife, Eneke, at her 10th birthday party. She was also born in The Netherlands. In 1963, Theo attended UC Berkeley and transferred to UC Davis the following year. He graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1969. While at UC Davis, Theo signed on to the US Army’s early commissioning program and after graduation was assigned to USAMRIID, Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, for active duty. After his discharge as a captain, veterinary pathology became his chosen career. He trained under the late Dr. T. C. Jones at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and became a board-certified veterinary pathologist in 1974. After certification, Theo worked at the New England Regional Primate Center and the Animal Research Center at Harvard Medical School. During these years, he started to build his extensive publication record with the well-known scientists in the veterinary field such as Drs. King, Hunt, and McCluskey.
Theo had married Eneke in 1966 and reared 2 children, Michael and Krista. They and their families were the lights of Theo’s life. In 1976, Theo took his family to The Netherlands when a position opened for a veterinary pathologist at the Institute for Experimental Gerontology TNO (director: Prof. Dr. C. F. Hollander) in the city of Rijswijk. This institute was associated with the Radiobiological Institute TNO and the Primate Center TNO. Theo replaced Dr. Joe Burek, who returned to the United States after a 2-year stay. Theo and his family remained for 8 years, during which he was a very productive scientist/pathologist resulting in about 70 publications on a wide variety of topics. In addition, he took on a PhD project that resulted in his dissertation at the State University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. His thesis, published as a book (Martinus Nijhoff), was entitled The Rat as Animal Model in Breast Cancer Research: A Histopathological Study of Radiation- and Hormone-Induced Rat Mammary Tumors.
In 1984, Theo and his family returned to the United States, when he joined Drs. Del Bokelman and Joe Burek at Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, Pennsylvania, as an associate director of pathology. In 1992, he became executive director of safety assessment. Beyond his managerial responsibilities in West Point, he also had oversight of Merck’s research laboratories in Japan. His personal interactive skills stood out and he was highly respected by his staff. Furthermore, he was heavily involved in the safety evaluation of many medicinal products and had a special interest in caloric restriction and oncogene research. Theo was also on the Review Panel of the National Toxicology Program, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and on the Editorial Board of the International Life Science Institute, Washington, DC. He retired from Merck in 2002.
Beyond the love for his family, Theo and Eneke enjoyed traveling not only to family in Florida, Colorado, and California but also internationally with a special focus on history, culture, and architecture. They visited countries such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Galapagos, Peru, and Patagonia.
Theo is survived by his wife, Dr. Adriana Eneke van Zwieten; his son, Michael; daughter, Krista; and 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
