Marvin Jaffe, 79, pharmaceutical researcher

When Dr. Marvin E. Jaffe joined the former Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in 1970, son Jonathan said, he hit his stride.

"During his career at Merck," his son wrote in an appreciation of his father, "he was responsible for bringing a number of first-in-class drugs" to market, such as Sinemet for Parkinson's disease and Mevacor for cholesterol treatment.

And referring to the joint venture with the firm AB Astra, his son said, Dr. Jaffe "had an integral role in the Astra-Merck alliance, which resulted in the development" of the heartburn drug Prilosec.

At Merck, Dr. Jaffe was vice president of clinical research from 1978 to 1987, and senior vice president of medical affairs into 1988, his son said.

On Thursday, June 23, Dr. Jaffe, 79, of Skillman, N.J., a neurologist who retired in 1994 as president of a research arm of Johnson & Johnson, died in an accidental drowning at his home in Sarasota, Fla.

Dr. Jaffe had moved to Skillman in 1996 from Huntingdon Valley, where he had resided from the 1970s.

Born in Philadelphia, Dr. Jaffe was valedictorian in his 1953 graduating class at Central High School, earned a bachelor's degree at Temple University in 1956, and graduated in 1960 from Jefferson Medical College, his son said in a phone interview.

Dr. Jaffe served as a physician in the Army Medical Corps in Frankfurt, West Germany, among other sites.

He was a neurologist at the former Philadelphia General Hospital, then a clinical associate professor of neurology at Jefferson Medical College and a neurologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

But by 1970, Dr. Jaffe had shifted his career to overseeing medical research, because, his son said, "he thought he touched more lives doing that than practicing."

After his career with Merck, Dr. Jaffe was president of the Robert Wood Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute for Johnson & Johnson in Raritan, N.J., from August 1988 to his retirement in 1994.

George Ohye knew Dr. Jaffe first as a Merck competitor, when Ohye worked at what is now Novartis. He later was a colleague at J&J.

Dr. Jaffe "was considered a giant in the industry, admired for all the drugs he had brought forward," Ohye said.

"People knew him as a soft-spoken, very intelligent physician who knew how to develop drugs better than anyone in the industry."

Dr. Jaffe was president of the Royal Society of Medicine Foundation and a board member of the Society for Chronic Diseases, among others.

After he retired, Dr. Jaffe was a consultant and board member for several biopharmaceutical and biotech firms, his son said.

Besides his son, Dr. Jaffe is survived by his wife, Susan; sons Matthew and Joshua; daughter Ondria Wasem; a sister; and 10 grandchildren. His wife of 56 years, Joan, died in 2013.

A memorial service has been set for 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 14, at the Morven Museum and Garden, 55 Stockton St., Princeton.

A second memorial service is to take place at 11 a.m. Friday, July 17, at Unity of Naples, 2000 Unity Way, Naples, Fla.

Donations may be sent to Seaver Autism Center at http://icahn.mssm.edu/research/centers/seaver-autoism-center.

610-313-8134@WNaedele