Dr. Manfred E. Bayer, 86, passed away at his home in Crozet, Virginia on February 27, 2015, with his daughter Ada-Helen at his side. Manfred was born in Goerlitz, Prussia (now Germany) on September 22, 1928, to Erika Helene Bayer (nee Pelikan) and Dr. Erich Ludwig Bayer. He is survived by his daughters, Dr. Ada-Helen Bayer Volentine of North Garden, Virginia, and Dr. Thora Ilin Bayer of New Orleans, Louisiana, and by his granddaughter, Anika Helene Volentine of North Garden, Virginia. Throughout his life, Manfred had an insatiable appetite for all things science. He studied at the University of Kiel, Germany, and obtained a degree in biology in 1949. He then studied medicine at the University of Hamburg, where he completed his medical clinical training in 1955 and received an MD in 1957. He also studied physics at the same university from 1957 to 1959, and was awarded a physics diploma in 1959. He later earned a diploma in tropical medicine and parasitology at Hamburg’s Bernard Nocht Institute for Tropical Diseases in 1961, and was an Assistant Member of the university’s Institute of Tropical Diseases and Parasitology from 1960 to 1962. In 1962, he and his wife Margret and their infant daughter Ada immigrated to the United States to take a Research Associate position at the Fox Chase Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He remained at the institute until his retirement, as an Assistant Member (1964-1967), Member (1978-1986), Senior Member (1986-1997), and following his retirement as Senior Member Emeritus (1997 onward). Among his many notable achievements at the Institute, Manfred was the first person to describe the structure and growth of the yellow fever virus. Over the years, his intellectual thirst took him from human and animal virology to even more specific studies of the structures that enabled viruses to invade cells. He researched and refined the use of water soluble embedding resins for electron microscopy, and this experimentation led to the production of high-quality molecular samples so thin that they can be applied to use in electron micrography. Manfred was the first person to obtain ultrathin sections of the changes caused to the cell wall of Escherichia coli by the antibiotic penicillin. The latter achievement helped guide the development of future antibiotics active against the bacterial wall. It was also during this time that Manfred and his research team discovered the structural units that form the Hepatitis B virus, paving the way to the formulation of a Hepatitis vaccine. Manfred also worked for the Lyme Disease Association, where he and his wife Margret conducted groundbreaking Lyme disease research in preliminary chain reactions, and was awarded a grant for his research studies on the effects of electromagnetic fields on Borrelia burgdorferi. In addition to his research activities, Manfred was an Adjunct Professor of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School from 1971 to 2000, and an Honorary visiting professor at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia beginning in 1981. He won the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science award (1977), was awarded a fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology, and was an editorial member of the Journal of Bacteriology for over fifteen years. In his spare time, Manfred loved traveling, fossil-hunting, birds, and artistic endeavors, where he created beautiful and unique welded sculptures – most being large-scale representations of the very viruses he studied under an electron microscope. In 2013, he and Margret moved from Philadelphia to central Virginia to be closer to Ada and her family. Manfred enjoyed the new landscape, the different birds and plants, and taking walks and scenic drives through the Blue Ridge Mountains around his new home. Manfred and Margret also continued to adore their ocean-side summer cottage in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. Margret passed in May in 2014, and as per their wishes, Manfred will be laid to rest next to Margret in a beautiful plot at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Hackett’s Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada. Recognizing Manfred’s love of science, art, nature, and photography, one may hang a birdhouse or go for a stroll in a park in his memory. Alternatively, donations in memory of Manfred may be made to The Lyme Disease Association (lymediseaseassociation.org). Family will receive friends at a memorial gathering at 4pm on Friday March 20th 2015 at the Teague Funeral Home in Charlottesville, Virginia.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-ca/obituaries/charlottesville-va/manfred-bayer-6343278