Robert W. Wannemacher Jr.

Robert W. Wannemacher Jr., 83, a retired biochemist who carved out a 40-year career at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), died on Oct. 7.

Born in Hackensack, N.J., Wannemacher received a B.S. in chemistry from Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1950. He earned an M.S. in 1951 and a Ph.D. in 1960, both in chemistry from Rutgers University, where he served as an assistant professor until 1964 and an associate professor until 1969.

He then joined USAMRIID’s Physical Sciences Division at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. He worked as a research chemist until 1980, when he took on a supervisory role in the institute’s Toxicology Division. He became the assistant chief of the division in 1994, before retiring in 2001.

Wannemacher is credited with numerous journal publications and multiple patents for biochemical warfare vaccinations. He was also an adviser, reviewer, and consultant to journals including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and the Journal of Nutrition. He was a member of many organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and was an emeritus member of ACS, joining in 1961.

He was active in many groups including the Frederick chapter of AARP and the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Wannemacher is survived by his wife, Martha; his sister, Janet Stephens; and his stepchildren, Gary T. Clem, Linda Ankney, and Richard Ankney. He was predeceased by his first wife, Carol, in 1969, and his second wife, Charlotte, in 2003.