Former regional school board member
Irving Weliky, 78, of Estes Park, Colo., died Sept. 15.
Dr. Weliky, his wife Virginia and four children lived in Hopewell Township for over 20 years. He served on the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education for nine years.
Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City and served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.
He attended Illinois Wesleyan University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in biology, and Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in biochemistry for studies on the intermediary metabolism of porphyrins, amino acids, and keto acids. As a research fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Harvard Medical School and an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, he taught biochemistry to medical students. While at Harvard and Pittsburgh, he worked on the biology of reproduction, contributing to an understanding of how steroid hormones and other natural products are synthesized. He then moved to the Squibb Institute for Medical Research in Princeton, and later to Carter-Wallace Laboratories, where he directed clinical trials of numerous drugs for the treatment of inflammation, allergy, and cardiovascular and respiratory disease. He retired from Carter-Wallace as director of Clinical Pharmacology and Biopharmaceutics in 1989. Since 1991, he has been a resident of Estes Park, Colo., where he volunteered at Long’s Peak Ranger Station in Rocky Mountain National Park.
He is survived by his wife, Virginia of Estes Park, Colo.; two daughters, Lora Weliky of Estes Park, Colo., and Joan Conaway of Kansas City, Mo.; two sons, James Weliky of Boston, Mass. and David Weliky, of Lansing, Mich.; his son-in-law Ronald Conaway of Kansas City, Mo.; his grandsons Larry Griffin of Estes Park, Colo., and Cody Hartke-Weliky of Boston, Mass.; his brother, Dr. Norman Weliky of Monterey Park, Calif.; nieces Madelene Kuykendall and Karen Weliky and nephews Michael Weliky and Tommy Barrett.
Time and date of a memorial service will be announced.