William “Bill” Dove, Professor Emeritus of the Laboratory of Genetics and the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, passed away on January 27th, 2025. He was surrounded by his loving family at Capitol Lakes Senior Living Center in Madison, WI.
Bill was born June 20, 1936 to William Franklin Dove and Ruth (née Stone) Dove in Orono, Maine. He was the second of five siblings. He joined a family of educators: Bill’s father was a geneticist at the University of Maine and his mother had been a lecturer in the English Departments at Smith College and the University of Maine prior to having children. Bill spent his early years exploring the woods of Maine and became a keen observer of the natural world. He was grateful for his public school education, where teachers noticed his curiosity and nurtured his interest in science.
After graduating from Amherst College (AB Chemistry, 1958) and earning a PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1962, Bill returned to England. At Cambridge University, he worked as a research fellow with scientific pioneers Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner. There, Bill met his future wife, postdoctoral fellow Alexandra Shedlovsky, who he married in 1964. In 1965 they moved to Madison, Wisconsin where Bill took his first (and final) position in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a dual appointment in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research.
Bill Dove made tremendous contributions to biomedical research on cancer over the course of his career. An overarching theme was Bill’s use of powerful genetic analyses to link chemistry to biology, and thus to unravel key molecular mechanisms of fundamental biological processes. The work of Bill and his colleagues aimed to achieve a deep understanding of the biology of colon cancer and thereby to impact its management in humans through diagnosis, prognosis, and early detection. Alongside his own research, Bill served for several decades as co-editor (along with his colleague Jim Crow) of the Perspectives section of the journal Genetics. His contributions received recognition across national and international scientific communities. He received research fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Bill was also honored with memberships to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Though grateful for these acknowledgements, Bill maintained a humble outlook and saw that his work’s true impact was through the ability to connect with others. Particularly notable was his concern for his students and post docs as shown in the care with which he guided them to become productive scientists. Those he mentored went on to contribute significantly to science. Bill also contributed in quiet and unheralded ways to the academic life of his beloved home institution, UW-Madison. He remained active in science until the very end of his life, staying in touch with colleagues at UW-Madison and beyond.
We are honored to have known Bill Dove as an influential professor, scientist, and person in the Laboratory of Genetics. He will be greatly missed, and we extend our sympathies to all who shared a part of their life with him. He was preceded in death by his wife Alexandra, his wife of 58 years, as well as his siblings Felicia, Christopher (Kit), and Ellen Dove. He is survived by his children William (Kiki Jamieson), Patrick (Deborah Myerson), and Suzanne (Miguel García-Gosálvez) and 7 grandchildren (Louis, Samuel, Miranda, Theo, Rafael, Henry, and Reuven) as well as his brother John (Gloria) Dove.
For a joint statement with the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, please visit this link.
The faculty of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and the Laboratory of Genetics will host a gathering to honor Bill Dove on Friday, March 14, 2025, 4-6 pm, in the HSLC Atrium, 750 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI. If you are unable to attend but would like to share a remembrance of Bill, please send it to bsheehan@oncology.wisc.edu.