Bertram I. Rowland

Bertram I. Rowland, 80, a chemical and biotechnology industry patent attorney, died of pancreas cancer on Oct. 28, 2010.

Born in New York City, Rowland received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1950 and a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1954. He conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University and attended Stanford Law School before earning a J.D. from George Washington University Law School in 1961.

Rowland began his law career as a patent agent in the DuPont Patent Training Program. He then worked as a supervisory patent attorney for Chevron Research before becoming a partner in a number of law firms and acting as general counsel for various biotech companies.

He supported the start-up of numerous biotech firms, including SyStemix and Pharmacopoeia. The Cohen and Boyer cloning patents, which are three pioneering gene-splicing patents, were among the more than 500 patents he wrote and prosecuted. He was an emeritus member of ACS, joining in 1954.

Rowland had a lifelong love of mountains, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro at age 70. He and his wife of 36 years, Susan, visited six of the seven continents. Rowland became a master gardener in 2009 and remained an avid tennis player until just before his death.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his three children, Shawn, Celia, and Kevin Rowland, from his first marriage to Patricia Butterfield.