Abstract
I enjoyed reading the reminiscences about Colin Pittendrigh in the June issue of Journal of Biological Rhythms (JBR) (Block et al., 2023), and I’m grateful to the authors for their contributions. I thought it would be worthwhile to add something in response to Fred Turek’s comments about Pittendrigh’s reluctance to see the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR) formed, as well as Carl Johnson’s reminder that he had felt the same way about a separate journal for the field. I can shed some light on that issue.
I first met Pitt in the early 1970’s when I was a graduate student in Irv Zucker’s lab at Berkeley. Irv came from a different research background and, despite his work on the neural control of circadian rhythms, had never met Pitt. He decided it was time to visit Pitt at Stanford to talk about his lab’s work on circadian rhythms, and asked me to join him. Pitt’s intimidating reputation (well documented in the Block et al. article) was certainly on our minds crossing the Bay. I don’t recall much about the visit, but I think Pitt was civil and welcoming, although he soon passed me on to his postdoc, Serge Daan, and kept Irv to himself. I think I had the more relaxed visit.
About a decade later in 1984, I was working to get the journal started with the group that formed the first editorial team for JBR (Gene Block, Serge Daan, Jerry Feldman, Bruce Goldman, Mike Menaker, Bob Moore and Terry Page). We felt it was very important to have both Pitt and Aschoff on the editorial advisory board and I invited both of them to join. Fred and Carl remembered correctly that Pitt was very concerned about separating the field of biological rhythms research from the broad field of biology in either a journal or a society.
But after some discussion, I heard back from Pitt in a letter dated July 2, 1984. He said he had 2 weeks left to pack up before leaving Hopkins for good. He wrote:
“First, yes indeed I will be delighted to serve on your Editorial Board—provided that the other members are as well chosen as the list of Associate Editors! I have, in the past, opposed a separate journal for our field but there are now 2 of them both so bad that a good one is needed. I am happy that you have agreed to take it on and -to repeat- delighted by your choice of editors. For godsake [sic] establish high standards; our field is still plagued by a surfeit of sloppiness.”
Following which he asked me to review an enclosed manuscript for PNAS by Earnest and Turek. He said, “Please be firm with our mutual friend.” I don’t recall whether I was, but it was published in PNAS in 1985.
Jürgen and Hilde Aschoff visited us in Halifax in 1984, I believe on their way to Timberline for Pitt’s party. As we drove down the Nova Scotia coast to visit Peggy’s Cove, I reminded Aschoff of the invitation for him to join our editorial board. I pressed him, but he sounded pretty skeptical and put off making a decision.
I then received a letter from him dated August 18, 1984, in which he wrote: “It seems that everyone is in favour of your new Journal. It becomes hard for me to say ‘no’. So, if you still insist to have me on your list of whatever committee, put my name on—but please don’t expect me to be of much help. I feel to lose track with what is going on faster and faster—Timberline was a lesson on that.” One might speculate that there had been some discussion of the proposed new journal at Timberline.
On September 5, Aschoff wrote again to send me some pages from a new chronobiology journal and to let me know that he had been invited to be on the advisory board of that journal a year earlier, and had said he could not for a variety of reasons. He would now find it awkward to appear on our editorial board. He asked how I reacted to that decision. My copy of the letter includes my hand-written note of his home phone number in Andechs, which I promptly called to talk him into staying a member of our board, which he ultimately agreed to do.
Consistent with what Block et al. also wrote about Pitt, he could be not only intimidating but also thoughtful, kind, and supportive. I received an unprompted, hand-written letter from him dated November 4, 1994, sent from Bozeman Montana, when I was about to step down as editor of JBR. It is framed and hangs on the wall of my office. Pitt wrote:
“Dear Benji:
“The time is close at hand when you will turn over the reins (burden?!) of Editorship of JBR to Fred Turek, and I am eager to send you my thanks and congratulations for what you have done -achieved- in the first ten years. I was, as you know, skeptical about the wisdom of a separate journal; and certainly I was skeptical that you (or anyone) would produce something as good as you have produced. Fred has a lot to do to follow you!
“So—good luck in your return more nearly 100% to the lab.
“With warm greetings,
Pitt”