Morris Husbands, celebrated medicinal chemical research and development scientist, has died at 85
He won awards for helping to create the drug venlafaxine in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It relieves symptoms of depression, anxiety, and nerve pain, and is now used worldwide.
Morris Husbands, 85, formerly of Berwyn, celebrated pioneering medicinal chemical research scientist who was instrumental in developing a breakthrough drug that relieves symptoms of depression, anxiety, and nerve pain, died Tuesday, June 20, of cancer at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Husbands worked for more than three decades in St. Davids and Princeton for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, now Pfizer Inc., and helped create the drug venlafaxine in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The prescription drug affects the chemical messaging between brain cells and mitigates feelings of irritability and sadness, and it created a new class of antidepressants called serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors.
As a result of that work, Dr. Husbands and two associates received a 2001 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the New Jersey Research and Development Council for “innovation in the discovery and development” of the drug. In announcing the award, Robert R. Ruffolo, then president of research and development at Wyeth, said Dr. Husbands’ work “has had a positive impact on the lives of millions of people suffering from depression and generalized anxiety disorder.”
Dr. Husbands and several colleagues also were named 2014 Heroes of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society for their work on venlafaxine. In 1996, he won a Caribbean American Heritage Award from the Institute of Caribbean Studies for excellence in science.
At that award ceremony in Washington, Owen Arthur, then prime minister of Barbados, praised Dr. Husbands not only for his research but for helping to create “a new national spirit that identifies ourselves as Caribbean people no matter where we are.”
“He was an island man through and through,” said his daughter, Jennifer. “He was a laid back, go-with-the-flow, always positive guy, and everyone talked about his smile.”
Dr. Husbands earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from London University in England and a doctorate in organic chemistry in 1967 at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He spent six months doing research at Hammersmith Hospital in London and started a science program and taught chemistry for two years at Christ Church Foundation School in Barbados.
He came to the United States to do postdoctoral research at Iowa State University in 1967 and then Detroit’s Wayne State University in 1968. He moved to Wynnefield in West Philadelphia in 1970 after becoming the first Black man with a doctorate to be hired by Wyeth. He retired in 2002.
“His influence and legacy are strong, beautiful and infectious, just like his smile,” a friend said in an online tribute. “He is a beautiful, beautiful soul with a profound impact on this world.”
George Edward Morris Husbands was born June 28, 1937, in Bridgetown, Barbados. He learned to swim as a boy at Gravesend beach and, as a lifelong music lover, reveled in Jamaica in the 1960s as ska and calypso began to meld into reggae.
He met nursing student Judith Lee Doyle in Detroit when she needed a chemistry tutor, and they married six months later on Valentine’s Day in 1969. They had son Julian and daughter Jennifer after moving to Philadelphia, and lived later in Devon and Berwyn.
His wife won the grand prize on the TV game show The $10,000 Pyramid in the 1970s, and they used it as a down payment on their home in Devon. They separated later, and Dr. Husbands served as the children’s primary caregiver through their high school years. His wife died in 2022.
Dr. Husbands was an avid sports fan who followed the Eagles and 76ers. He had season tickets with the Phillies for years and was at Wrigley Field in Chicago with his family in 2015 when Cole Hamels no-hit the Cubs in Hamels’ final start with the Phillies.
He enjoyed listening to live jazz music, was a longtime subscriber at the Walnut Street Theatre, and made small bets on favorite horses at Monmouth Park racetrack. He never lost his Caribbean accent, and friends said he resembled singer Billy Ocean when he was young and actor Morgan Freeman as he grew older.
Dr. Husbands was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 and moved to Chicago for treatment. He was able to return to Barbados with his family in 2022 and 2023, and had plans to see the Phillies play in Chicago in late June and attend his daughter’s 50th birthday party in July.
“He will be remembered,” his family said in a tribute, “for his kindness, his positive attitude, and his impressive intellect.” Former colleague Neville L. Holder said: “Morris, by his life and example, has earned a place among the noblest men and women. His kindness for his family and friends will be with us for generations.”
In addition to his children, Dr. Husbands is survived by three grandchildren and other relatives.
A celebration of his life is to be held later.
Donations in his name may be made to the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation, Suite 2500, 130 East Randolph St., Chicago, Ill. 60601.