The Rockefeller University, in its more than a hundred-year history, apart from becoming one of the leading scientific institutions in the world being graced by twenty-four Nobel Prize winners and by hundreds of other scientists changing the world of science with their groundbreaking research, has also been forever enriched by the unique, remarkable, and inimitable John L. Gerlach.
John came to Rockefeller in 1968 joining the Mc Ewen Lab as a research assistant making great contributions, for instance, to the use of radioactive steroid hormones to map the location of their receptors in the brains of males and females. His dedication to science, in time, was joined by his dedication to music (he did study piano in youth) when in 1986 he started to co-direct the Tri-Institutional Noon Recitals together with biophysicist Alexander Mauro. After Dr. Mauro passed away, John directed the recitals single-handedly until the day he died.
In the decades of Friday noon concerts, John would bring an exceptional array of both up-and-coming and already thriving interpreters from around the world, managing all the bookings, publicity, and related operations, always presenting the artists with marked-by-his-friendship introductions. Week after week we were delighted to see music performed by diverse ensembles, played on various instruments, selected from broad range of genres.
In the fall of 2023, after the two-year Covid hiatus, with the hope of normality returning, John re-started the recitals, but it was not to last. At the time of his death, as an astonishing reminder of his gift for finding joy in striving to bring music to others, the number of concerts he has organized stood at 1165, concerts with the combined attendance of about three million, an epitome of the university’s motto pro bono humani.
