![[Feedback]](/icons/banner/feedbackACT.gif){kind=icon}
![[For Subscribers]](/icons/banner/subscriberACT.gif){kind=icon}
![[Archive]](/icons/banner/archiveACT.gif){kind=icon}
![[Search]](/icons/banner/searchACT.gif){kind=icon}
![[Contents]](/icons/banner/tocACT.gif){kind=icon}
|
|
|
|
|
||
*
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1224;
University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224-2645 and
**
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: schemmel{at}msu.edu
 |
INTRODUCTION |
|---|
 TOP INTRODUCTION REFERENCES |
|---|
Mickelsen was born in Perth Amboy, NJ, on July 29, 1912, the second son of Frederik and Marie Mickelsen. Although his parents were married in the United States, both were Danish immigrants. His older brother died in infancy. Two years after Olaf’s birth, his sister, Christine (Kee) was born. A younger brother, Arnold, was born about 2 years after Christine. Olaf attended public elementary school and high school in Perth Amboy. When he requested to take typewriting during his junior year as a preparatory subject for college, his high school principal remarked, "you won’t be going to college anyway," even though he was valedictorian of his high school class. While in high school, Olaf saved his money that he made from a paper route for college and put it in the bank. His father recommended that he remove the money from the bank, and he did so right before the stock market crash in October 1929, a prelude to the Great Depression of the 1930s. He entered Rutgers University approximately one-and-a-half years after high school graduation. In the interim, Olaf worked as a farmhand in Bloomfield, NY, and later as a laboratory technician for E. I. Dupont Company in Perth Amboy. He entered the Rutgers University School of Agriculture in New Brunswick, NJ, in the fall of 1931 but soon switched his major to chemistry, where he found that the courses were more challenging and exciting. To help defray college expenses, he worked as a librarian at Rutgers University. During his junior year at Rutgers, he was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa.
After graduation from Rutgers in 1935, he entered graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. During the summer of 1936, he worked as a chemist at the E. I. Dupont Company in Niagara Falls, NY, but after experiencing the excitement of receiving a National Livestock and Meat Board Fellowship for his last 3 years of graduate school, he pursued his studies on a full-time basis. Olaf was a very lean young man and frequently played tennis to break the routine of graduate study. He received his master’s and doctorate degrees in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1937 and in 1939, respectively.
In graduate school, Mickelsen was fortunate to have Dr. Conrad Elvehjem
as his major professor and to be at the University of Wisconsin at an
exciting time for the disciplines of biochemistry and nutrition. During
the era, faculty and students were discovering and elucidating the
chemical structure for many new growth factors as well as disease
prevention factors and vitamins. Olaf’s master’s thesis, completed in
1937, and entitled, "The Distribution of Vitamin B-1, the PP Factor
and Factor W in Animal Tissues," is characteristic of the research
undertaken by the faculty and graduate students at that time. Olaf
continued to work in the area for his doctorate, and his dissertation,
published in 1939, was entitled, "Distribution and Properties of the
Water Soluble Vitamins." With seven reports of his graduate studies
appearing in scientific journals by the time he received his doctorate,
it was obvious that Olaf believed the publication of research results
was vital in extending knowledge to improve human health. He believed
that both basic and applied research were of value. For example, the
rat growth method not only was used for basic investigations with
thiamin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid (pellagra-preventive factor) and
pantothenic acid but also demonstrated the sensitivity of the assay in
revealing that pork was much richer in thiamin than other meats
(1)
.
After graduation, Dr. Mickelsen was employed as a chemist for the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Medical School, and in 1942, at the age of 30, he was appointed associate professor in biochemistry and physiological hygiene at the University of Minnesota. During World War II, he was a consultant to the secretary of war. In one of his letters, Dr. Mickelsen describes some of the investigations conducted in the laboratory that were relevant to the war effort.
"During World War II, I worked with Dr. Ancel Keys on the K ration.
This emergency ration was named after Dr. Keys because of the
pioneering work he did in getting our country conscious of the fact
that a ration of this type would be surely needed if we became
embroiled in war. Dr. Keys started his work on this ration prior to the
entry into World War II. When the army took over the developmental work
of the K ration, the laboratory turned its attention to the question of
vitamin needs of young men. We had large numbers of conscientious
objectors on a variety of experiments aimed at assessing the
nutritional requirements for such vitamins as thiamin, riboflavin,
niacin and Vitamin C. Prior to the advent of the North African
campaign, a good deal of work was done in the laboratory on the dietary
factors that might be associated with adaptation to high temperatures.
When it became obvious that large numbers of people would have to be
rehabilitated from a severely starved condition at the end of the war,
the laboratory turned its attention to an extensive study of
starvation. Normal young men were subjected to diets simulating those
that we believed common in North and Central Europe during the war. On
those diets, the men were subjected to a weight loss of 25%. At the
end of that time, they were refed on different combinations of food.
These studies showed that the factor of primary importance in bringing
an individual back from starvation was kilocalories. This, of course,
was contingent upon the individual’s getting an adequate, but not
high, amount of protein in the diet. The results of these studies and a
comprehensive review of the literature were compiled in a
two-volume book entitled, ‘The Biology of Human Starvation’"
(2)
. In 1975, publishers at the University of Minnesota
Press reported that the most important and valuable publication of the
past 25 years was the two-volume treatise on the biology of human
starvation.
Despite the ambitious research undertakings that resulted in some 35 publications during his 9 years at the University of Minnesota, Mickelsen found time to romance and marry his first wife, Edith Nielsen, whom he had known in New Jersey. While in Minnesota, the couple had two daughters, Elizabeth (Betty) and Margaret.
In September 1948, Mickelsen joined the U.S. Public Health Service as a chemist with the Bureau of State Services, Division of Chronic Disease, and the family moved to the Washington, D.C., area. This involved a change not only in residence but also in the type of work Olaf did. He became affiliated with a field nutrition branch and was involved with the development and evaluation of biochemical procedures that could be used to assess the nutritional status of large population groups, as well as with multiple screening and diabetes detection programs. The nutritional assessment procedures were used by the Department of Defense in the nutrition surveys conducted in several countries, such as Iran, Greece, Turkey, and some countries in Africa and South and Central America. Olaf visited Iran and some of the other countries and supervised the work of the research teams.
Although Mickelsen found the public health work interesting, he was pleased to accept a position in 1952 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)2 as chief of the Laboratory of Nutrition and Endocrinology, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. This enabled him to carry out research in a vicarious manner and to become involved in multiple research projects.
It was in early 1953 that his wife, Edith, and their 8-day-old infant son, Peter Oliver, died. Subsequently, Olaf married Clarice (Claire) Lewerenz, who worked in the institute’s Administrative Office and who assisted in writing position descriptions and in procuring applicants for laboratory vacancies.
While at the NIH, Mickelsen embarked on several different aspects of
nutrition research. He was impressed by the statements made during the
first week by several of the subjects who had been on the starvation
diets at Minnesota. They complained about not being able to eat all of
their food and wondered how they would be able to lose weight on such a
diet. However, in a short period of time, they adapted to the bulk of
the starvation diet and complained of hunger. Olaf wondered if the
reverse might also be true. In other words, what would happen if the
investigators took rats that had been accustomed to a grain or bulky
diet and fed them a nutritionally dense high fat diet? Would they
misjudge the energy content of the diet, overeat and gain weight? Sure
enough, they did, and the NIH authors reported excessive gains in the
weight of slightly more than 1400 g compared with 550 g for
rats fed stock diets (3)
. These findings challenged the
investigators to want to know more about the body composition of the
fat rats, and they developed a method for doing that.
During this time, Mickelsen also became interested in the changes in the growth of children and in differential growth of children during the four seasons. Using data from medical records from 1925 to 1949 on the height and weight of first grade school children in the Philadelphia area, Mickelsen and colleagues reported that over the span of 25 years, there was a statistically significant increase in height for boys and in body weight for both boys and girls. Another study involving children was conducted to determine whether dietary phosphates would be effective in reducing the incidence of dental caries, as was true in rats and hamsters. The 4-year study was conducted among children attending eight different boarding schools on American Indian reservations in North and South Dakota. Initial evaluations of the diets indicated that the children consumed about a pound of bread a day, so calcium phosphate was added to the bread served to children in four of the schools while children received the regular bread at the other four schools. However, confounding variables such as a new master menu plan issued by the federal government, changes in milk consumption and children’s access to candy interfered with the overall study, and the results were negative.
Investigation of the nutritional and toxicological properties of
chemicals used in the food industry for food processing also attracted
Mickelsen’s attention. He not only published research in the area but
also advocated that after the food is processed, it should be evaluated
to determine whether the nutritional value of the food had been
compromised by the processing procedure (4)
.
Later, with reports of a neurotoxic component in the food supply of the
people living in Guam, Olaf and his colleagues at NIH investigated the
relationship between the consumption of the nut of the indigenous cycad
plant and the prevalence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Traditionally, in areas of the South Pacific, the nut of the
palm-like Cycas circinalis is soaked before being
prepared as cycad flour for consumption when other foods are scarce. To
investigate this phenomenon, the scientists mixed the untreated ground
flour from the cycad nut into a grain-type powdered diet and fed it
to rats. The experiments failed to demonstrate the presence of a
neurotoxin, but the rats developed neoplastic disease with benign and
malignant tumors in the liver and kidneys (5)
. This was a
fascinating area of research that Olaf continued after leaving the NIH.
In 1962, when the NIH Biochemistry and Nutrition Laboratory was being phased out, Mickelsen was appointed professor in the Department of Foods and Nutrition (now Food Science and Human Nutrition) at Michigan State University (MSU). He brought with him an enormous amount of expertise in several different research areas. He continued to work on thiamin, although not with the fervor of his Wisconsin and Minnesota days, because his research interests had expanded into other areas.
On Olaf’s arrival at MSU, one of us (S.B.V.), who had just recently
arrived from Iran, was midway in the investigation of the effects of a
bread diet on growth in rats. The assumption was that Iranians, whose
major food was wheat bread, were small in stature because the diet was
low in the essential amino acid, lysine. As a result, animal production
was being encouraged for many developing countries to ensure adequate
lysine in the diet. However, rats were not an ideal animal model in
which to investigate the importance of lysine, because they grow much
more rapidly than humans. Obviously, the hypothesis needed to be tested
in humans. Mickelsen was able to secure U.S. Department of Agriculture
funding for the study, and the laboratory became engrossed in this
human metabolic study. During the 50-day experimental period, 12 young
men were fed an energy-adequate 70 g of protein/day diet in
which 90–95% of the protein came from wheat flour (as present in
white bread) and the remainder came from fruits and vegetables. The men
were healthy throughout the study and in nitrogen balance
(6)
; blood urea concentrations were about half of the
previous value for the men when they consumed the control diet, which
contained 70 g of protein from animal and plant sources.
Vegetarian diets, which are similar to the bread diet, have been
associated with the excretion of an alkaline urine, which may influence
blood urea nitrogen concentrations (7)
. Compared with an
acid urine, an alkaline urine also promotes the retention of calcium.
To further evaluate the hypothesis, Mickelsen studied the bone density
of Seventh Day Adventists in collaboration with nutrition scientists at
Andrews University in Southwestern Michigan. However, the results were
confounded by the fact that some of the Seventh Day Adventists were
lactovegetarians or ovovegetarians.
Early on, Dr. Mickelsen recognized the importance of grains, especially bread, in the diet. The publications of Burkitt in the early 1970s in which he reported that dietary fiber was beneficial in the prevention of colonic cancer and diverticular disease complemented Olaf’s advocacy for diets that were higher in cereals and bread. However, it was not until 1992 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued its Food Guide Pyramid in which dietary grains and fruits and vegetables were prominently displayed as significant dietary components.
At MSU, Olaf actively continued the work on cycad with his first MSU
graduate student, Elizabeth Campbell Asselbergs, and with his research
associate, Dr. Modesto Yang. They investigated the possible protective
role of nutrition to the toxicity of the nut (8)
. Olaf and
colleagues also reported that soaking, heating and storage decreased
the toxicity of cycasin, which was the toxic component of the nut. The
toxicity of other components, such as the husks of the nut, was also
investigated.
After hearing Dr. Mickelsen speak in 1961 about obesity induced by
feeding a high fat diet to rats at the American Dietetic Association
meeting in St. Louis, MO, I (R.A.S.) indicated to him that this was an
area of my interest. With support from NIH, his earlier work was
expanded, and we reported that from among seven different strains of
rats, all except the S5B/Pl strain became obese when fed a high fat
diet (9)
. None of the control rats fed a grain ration
became obese. Problems associated with diet-induced obesity were
also investigated by others in Mickelsen’s laboratory. Either obesity
per se or the constituents of a high fat diet had a depressive effect
on organic anion transport, thereby impairing kidney function
(10)
. The consumption of a high fat diet or obesity caused
a prolongation of estrous cycles in female rats but did not affect
fertility or sperm production in male rats up to 11 weeks of age
(11)
. In a study that involved older women, those who ate
less fat in their diets appeared to live longer.
While at MSU, Olaf was actively involved with evaluating several
products for the food industry. One such product was a mixture of
potassium chloride and sodium chloride (12)
that
subsequently proved beneficial in the control of blood pressure. This
product was marketed as Lite Salt and is currently available. Mickelsen
was requested to explore the vitamin C content of newly developed
tomatoes that could withstand mechanical harvesting without bruising.
He and a graduate student reported that the vitamin C content of the
tomatoes was similar to that of the more labor-intensive
hand-harvested tomatoes.
The 1960s and early 1970s were an intensely exciting time to be in Dr. Mickelsen’s laboratory. The graduate students and postdoctoral researchers were always included in the informal bag luncheons that took place on a daily basis; the latest developments in nutrition science were routinely discussed. Mickelsen was well known nationally and internationally and frequently invited nutrition scientists to present a seminar and to visit the laboratory. In 1966, as a typical example, two of the visiting scientists were Dr. Ancel Keys and Dr. Josef Brozek. Other distinguished visitors included Sir David Cuthbertson and his wife. Almost always, the visitors shared the informal luncheons, and the students not only learned about the scientists’ investigations on a personal basis but also were able to describe their own research and results. Many times, the discussions led to new approaches for research, not only for the students but also for the visiting scientists. Olaf’s active, inquiring mind and thoughtful questions frequently indicated logical follow-up sequences when other individuals were stymied as to how to further investigate the problem or elucidate mechanisms. Sometimes new collaborations were established. Frequently, the scientists stayed with the Mickelsens, and faculty and graduate students were invited to share a delicious dinner along with the guest of honor in the Mickelsens’ home. With Olaf’s intensive knowledge of nutrition and enthusiasm for the discipline, the conversation was always stimulating. For the benefit of the graduate students, dictionaries and encyclopedias were always available in their home to provide less well known facts needed during discussions. Claire was the cook and gracious hostess for all of these occasions. Another such visitor was Dr. Elsie Widdowson of the Dunn Nutritional Laboratory in Cambridge, England. Her visit coincided with the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969, and Dr. Widdowson, the Mickelsen family and several graduate students watched the landing in the bedroom of Olaf’s mother, Marie, who was visiting with the Mickelsen’s at that time. This was one of the few times the family watched television. In general, Olaf preferred to go to the library to read the scientific literature or to write a manuscript instead of watching television.
At MSU, Mickelsen routinely taught two classes: a graduate course and an undergraduate course on energy nutrients to senior dietetic and nutritional sciences majors. Along with another faculty member and a graduate student, he developed nutrition self-study experiments to reinforce some of the facts learned in lecture through application. He was in great demand as a lecturer in other professors’ classes, national and international professional meetings, at other universities and for lay audiences.
During this productive period at MSU, it was very evident that Mickelsen was a devoted family man and took a keen interest in each family member. His older daughter, Betty, entered the premed program at the University of Wisconsin at the end of her junior year in high school. At that time, a reciprocal program among leading universities permitted her to enter medical school at the University of Michigan at the end of her junior year of college. Thus, she simultaneously finished her first year of medicine and received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin. She specialized in pediatrics, becoming a pediatric oncologist. The younger daughter, Margaret, was accepted at Cottey College in Nevada, MO, after 3 years of high school. After graduation from Cottey, a 2-year institution, she transferred to MSU in her junior year. After graduation from MSU, she had a very successful career in merchandising management and later in real estate. Margaret and her husband, Don Funk, who is retired from the Ford Company, reside in Tellico Village (Loudon), TN.
The more than 200 scientific publications by Mickelsen include three books, several chapters in books and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles. He was associate editor of Nutrition Reviews and served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Nutrition, Federation Proceedings and the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, and he was an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals. From 1966 until 1972, he wrote a column entitled, "The Training Table" for Tennis, the Magazine of the Racquet Sports. He enjoyed writing the column because he had a keen interest in the relation of nutrition to athletic performance. Unlike his formal scientific writing, the column was written for a lay audience and often reflected his subtle sense of humor.
Mickelsen was secretary (1963–1966) and then president (1973) of the American Institute of Nutrition (now American Society for Nutritional Sciences). He was a member of the Nutrition and Metabolism Study Section (1955–1961) and the Animal Resources Panel (1963–1967) for NIH. He was a member of the panel for the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health. From 1972 to 1975, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, American Institute of Baking. He was a member of several other advisory committees and a member of numerous MSU committees. No wonder he asked many people who came to his office if they had yet found that time stretcher!
Mickelsen was a member of several professional societies, including the American Institute of Nutrition, American Board of Nutrition, American Chemical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists (now American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), British Nutrition Society, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. In 1967, he became a national honorary member of Omicron Nu (now Kappa Omicron Nu). He was also an honorary member of the Water Conditioning Association International. He received the Emmett J. Culligan award of the World Water Society in 1972. His name appears on plaques in the MSU library for his MSU Chapter of Sigma Xi Senior Research Award in 1973 and for his MSU Distinguished Faculty Award in 1974. He was recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition in 1983.
The Mickelsens valued the art of letter writing and frequently wrote to their friends, colleagues and former graduate students. They wrote picturesque, humorous and poetic letters, wherein their activities were described in detail. The letters were highly treasured and often saved by those who received them.
In 1977, Olaf accepted an invitation to be a visiting professor at the Iranian Institute of Nutritional Sciences and Food Technology in Tehran, Iran. At the Iranian Institute of Nutrition, he was asked to update and to improve the curricula in nutrition for both undergraduate and graduate students and to bring the curricula up to U.S. standards. He also taught a graduate course in nutrition while at the institute. Olaf had taken his very large personal collection of books and bound journals with him to use while he was in Iran and to donate to the library of the institute after his departure.
Another goal was to develop an interdisciplinary research program in human nutrition and to further evaluate the effects of the consumption of large amounts of wheat products, especially bread, on kidney function and mineralization of the skeleton. The Mickelsens set up their research project and assisted the institute in every way possible while trying to ignore Iran’s internal political, economic and social unrest. By May 1978, arrangements were complete for conducting their research, which included collecting food intake data and anthropometric data and performing bone density measurements. A physician was available to complete the clinical examinations. For these studies, the Mickelsens traveled to Esfahan and to the village of Jallalabad.
By September, the political turmoil became more evident, and there were numerous strikes. In December 1978, the couple was advised to keep a low profile and to remain indoors during the Iranian holy days. In late 1978, the English-language newspaper was discontinued, and the Mickelsens had little contact with the outside world. Fuel oil and gasoline were scarce, and there were numerous blackouts. On January 16, 1979, many people were jubilant after they had learned that the shah had departed from the airport at 1:30 p.m., ending a dynasty of >50 years.
After Ayatollah Khomeini’s arrival, the Mickelsens began preparations to leave Iran in early February 1979. They had made airline reservations for February 12, 1979, but all commercial airline flights were canceled on February 10. On February 16, they received a message to be at the American Embassy by 5:00 p.m. for a commercial flight the next day. They were allowed to bring only one bag each. Khomeini soldiers were guarding the gate to the embassy and urged the arriving Americans to enter as quickly as possible. Several times during the night, shots were heard and everyone was requested to lie down on the floor. All lights were out at the embassy. At about 6:00 a.m., a convoy of six or seven busses, with a Khomeini soldier in the front and in the back of each bus, transported the 300–400 Americans to the Tehran airport, arriving about 8:00 a.m. However, it was not until about 1:30 p.m. that the Americans boarded a Pan Am plane with its volunteer crew. After another long wait while the baggage was searched, the plane took off for Rome at about 5:30 p.m. The Mickelsens purchased tickets in Rome and remained on the same plane for their flight to New York. They arrived at the home of their daughter, Betty, in Shaker Heights, OH, the next day.
Olaf retired from MSU in 1979 and took an appointment as a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Delaware. He remained at the university for 2 years. Along with a graduate student, he conducted studies on the glycemic response to specific carbohydrate foods.
After an intensive search, in the fall of 1980, Olaf and Claire located 40 acres in Hall County, GA, where they built their retirement home. They moved to their new home in the summer of 1981. Olaf assisted their building contractor in sanding the oak floors and finishing them to his standard of perfection. In addition, he built the cabinets in their laundry room and constructed bookcases and additional pieces of furniture.
As a child, Olaf developed a love for working with wood. He had used his father’s carpentry tools to fashion a sailboat and other toys. Later, his own meticulously maintained workshop, with its power saws and other automated tools, was greatly admired by everyone who visited it. He designed and built tables and other equipment for his laboratory at MSU. Family, friends and graduate students benefited from his wood-working hobby because he frequently built furniture, shelves and other items for their homes. He also built toys such as a rocking duck and a dollhouse for his grandchildren.
Although Olaf kept the lawn perfectly manicured and their vegetable and flower gardens productive and weed free while living in Okemos, MI, it was not until his retirement in 1981 that he found time to indulge his continued interest in hobby farming. Olaf thought that the Georgia location would be just right for growing fruit trees, quince, nuts, berries and vegetables. Although he had a reasonable concept of the soil quality and the weather, he found that clearing the area of kudzu and discouraging the deer from enjoying the fruits of his labor were challenges. Even so, by 1983, the Mickelsens had healthy and productive crops of blueberries and grapes.
In retirement, Olaf and Claire were delighted to spend time with their two grandchildren, Peter and Karen, both in Shaker Heights, OH, and later in Dunwoody, GA, when Betty’s family moved there. Betty attended professional meetings in leukemia and hemophilia, and the grandparents were happy on those occasions to "live in." The Mickelsens took a great deal of interest in their two grandchildren and had a big influence on their lives. When Halley’s comet made its recent return, Peter, his chemistry teacher and a high school chum drove from Dunwoody to the Mickelsens’ home to see the comet more clearly in the darkened skies of Lula, GA. The high school friend innocently asked Olaf and Claire, "Did it look like this the last time?" Since then, Peter has received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and master’s and doctoral degrees in astrophysics at the University of Maryland. His research for his Ph.D. dissertation was conducted at the nearby NASA Space Flight Center. He is now at Lucent Technologies at Murray Hill, NJ. Karen is completing a doctoral degree in Art History at New York University. Earlier, she had obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan.
While living in Georgia, the Mickelsens continued to broaden their lives through travel. On several occasions, they drove to Michigan and stayed in East Lansing with former students or friends or in Howell, where their daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Don Funk, lived at that time. They frequently visited with Mrs. Ernestine McCollum, who lived in the Baltimore area. They were often visitors at the Vaghefis in Jacksonville, FL. They toured the northwestern part of the United States. In 1987, along with Margaret and Don Funk, they visited Japan and China. They traveled to Nova Scotia. In November of 1992, they were guests at Dr. Ancel Keys’ villa in Pioppi, Italy.
The Mickelsens loved entertaining and did everything possible to make their guests comfortable in their home for an extended visit or for dinner. They were the excellent and thoughtful host and hostess. Whenever their foreign friends came to the United States for professional reasons, they almost always included a visit to the Mickelsens in Georgia. Callaway Gardens and Stone Mountain were frequently visited with guests. On these trips, Claire invariably packed a picnic lunch to be enjoyed at noon in the outdoors.
Mickelsen anticipated the needs of others and was always available to lend a helping hand. For example, when Dr. Dena Cederquist was away over the Christmas holiday, Olaf knew when she would return to Lansing, and he went to the airport just before she arrived to shovel out and brush the snow off her car. The Mickelsens’ kindness to others was further demonstrated by the fact that they frequently drove the nearly 100-mile round trip from Lula to Athens, GA, to volunteer at the Georgia Unit of the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Olaf and Claire worked together to do this because one read and the other operated the equipment.
Even in retirement, Olaf continued his interest in nutrition. Both he and Claire joined the Georgia Nutrition Council and faithfully attended the meetings. The depth and insight of Olaf’s questions were most impressive to other attendees at the council meetings. In 1990, he received the Georgia Nutrition Council Award of Excellence. As late as 1986, Olaf and Claire traveled to Lincoln, NE, where the Seventh Day Adventist retirees were holding their meeting, to repeat the survey he had done in 1976, which emphasized measurements of bone density.
Olaf was intensely proud of his Danish ancestry. While growing up, he lived in a Danish community and learned to speak Danish before he learned to speak English. He and Claire visited his cousin in Denmark, and his daughter, Margaret, had an extended stay in Denmark to learn more about the culture. Bing and Grondahl Danish Christmas plates were displayed in their home. Danish plates were also commonly given as gifts to relatives, friends and former graduate students.
In late 1996, his daughter Betty (now at Marshall University Hospitals and Medical School in Huntington, WV) moved to a University of West Virginia Medical Center in Charleston, WV. Soon thereafter, she searched for an assisted living residence for Olaf and Claire. This resulted in their move to a townhouse in the Glenwood Park Retirement Village, Princeton, WV, in 1998. Family, friends and associates gave comfort and love to Olaf while he endured the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease. He succumbed to pneumonia on August 8, 1999, and was cremated. A memorial service was held in the Glenwood Chapel on August 28 with his entire family, some of his former graduate students and many of the Glenwood residents present. In his memory, the family established and very generously supported the Olaf and Clarice Mickelsen Endowed Scholarship for worthy students pursuing studies in nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at MSU. Friends, relatives, colleagues and former students also contributed to the fund.
It is obvious that Olaf loved his work and made a significant
contribution to the discipline of nutrition. His book "Nutrition
Science and You" (13)
was read by many. His research
interests on vitamins, bread and wheat as a major source of protein,
starvation and obesity, aging, food processing to improve nutrition,
natural toxicants in foods and other aspects of nutrition were exciting
components of his professional career and remained high priority
throughout his retirement. His attention to detail and perfectionism in
writing and nutrition research were also evident in his carpentry work
and gardening. Despite a busy schedule, he always had time and concern
for immediate family members, other relatives, colleagues, students and
friends. By those who knew him, he will remain a cherished memory. And
despite his consistent reply to a greeting, "How are you today?"
"Not bad for an old man," his joy for life will reinforce
remembering him as someone who is young at heart.FIGURE 1
|
|
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
|
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
|
REFERENCES |
|---|
|
TOPINTRODUCTIONREFERENCES |
|---|
1. Mickelsen O., Waisman H. A., Elvehjem C. A. The distribution of vitamin B-1 (thiamin) in meat and meat products. J. Nutr. 1939;17:269-280
2. Keys A., Brozek J., Henschel A., Mickelsen O., Taylor H. L. The Biology of Human Starvation 1950;I and II The University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis, MN.
3. Mickelsen O., Takahashi S., Craig C. Experimental obesity I. Production of obesity in rats by feeding high-fat diets. J. Nutr. 1955;57:541-554
4. Mickelsen O. Chemicals and food processing. Nutr. Rev. 1957;15:129-131[Medline]
5. Laqueur G. L., Mickelsen O., Whiting M. G., Kurland L. T. Carcinogenic properties of nuts from Cycas circinalis L. indigenous to Guam. J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 1963;31:919-933
6. Bolourchi S., Friedemann C. M., Mickelsen O. Wheat flour as a source of protein for adult human subjects. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1968;21:827-835[Abstract]
7. Mickelsen O., Makdani D. D. Factors affecting nutrient metabolism. Harris E. B. Karmas E. eds. Nutritional Evaluation in Food Processing 2nd ed. 1975 The AVI Publishing Co Westport, CT.
8. Campbell M. E., Mickelsen O., Yang M. G., Laqueur G. L., Keresztesy J. C. Effects of strain, age and diet on the response of rats to the ingestion of Cycas circinalis. J. Nutr. 1966;88:115-124
9. Schemmel R., Mickelsen O., Gill J. L. Dietary obesity in rats: body weight and body fat accretion in seven strains of rats. J. Nutr. 1970;100:1041-1048
10. Johnson J. T., Mickelsen O., Hook J. B. Effect of obesity in the rat on renal transport of organic acids and bases. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 1973;142:271-275[Medline]
11. Innami S., Yang M. G., Mickelsen O., Hafs H. D. The influence of high-fat diets on estrous cycles, sperm production and fertility of rats. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 1973;143:63-68[Medline]
12. Frank R. L., Mickelsen O. Sodium-potassium chloride mixtures as table salt. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1969;22:464-470[Abstract]
13. Mickelsen O. Nutrition Science and You 1964 Paperback: Scholastic Press, New York, NY; hardback McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
