Jane Mills Glick, 65, biochemist

Jane Mills Glick, 65, of Swarthmore, a biochemist, died Sunday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania of head trauma from a fall in her home.

From 2002 until she retired in May 2008, Dr. Glick was faculty administrator of the Cell and Molecular Biology (CAMB) graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Previously, she was director of education in the gene-therapy program at Penn for eight years, and also associate professor in cell and molecular biology.

When Dr. Glick was nominated for a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2003, Glen Gaulton, chief scientific officer at the medical school, wrote in the nominating letter: "Jane is the rock that binds CAMB together; she is our conscience and guide as we seek to improve the lives of our students and our colleagues."

In 1985, Dr. Glick won a Lindback Award when she was associate professor of physiology and biochemistry at the former Medical College of Pennsylvania. She later was professor of biochemistry at the school.

Dr. Glick published 60 papers in top peer-review journals on lipid metabolism, focusing on the biochemical controls of cholesterol accumulation.

"Jane's positive impact on students and colleagues was born of a quiet intensity about science and the good it can do that never wavered," said Arthur H. Rubenstein, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Dr. Glick's husband of 41 years, John H. Glick, a physician, is president of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. He helped launch the cancer program at Penn in the 1970s, and from 1985 to 2005, he directed the Abramson Cancer Center, which grew to more than 300 faculty members, attracting $180 million in grants a year.

"She was totally supportive. All that I am in life is because of her," John Glick said.

Attorney Richard Sprague, a longtime friend of the Glicks', said that "Jane was a great, great partner to John." She was "an original thinker" who could converse on astronomy, literature, and opera, Sprague said. She was unassuming about her own achievements, preferring to stay in the background, he said.

Two years ago, Dr. Glick survived a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. "She made a 100 percent recovery her doctors called miraculous," her husband said. "Every day we were thankful for the extra time we had together."

Dr. Glick grew up in Columbus, Ohio. She earned a bachelor's degree from Randolph-Macon College in Lynchburg, Va. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, she earned a doctorate in biochemistry from Columbia University, where she met her husband, who was a medical student.

She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and at Stanford University.

Dr. Glick served on the executive committee of the Philadelphia Antiques Show, which benefits the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and on the board of Swarthmore Presbyterian Church.

She enjoyed golfing, canoeing, picking blueberries, walking in the woods, and watching her grandchildren play by the lake at her summer home in the Poconos, John Glick said.

In addition to her husband, Dr. Glick is survived by daughters Katherine Cox and Sarah Johnson; a brother; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church, 727 Harvard Ave. Donations may be made to the Jane M. Glick Graduate Student Teaching Award, University of Pennsylvania Development Office, 3535 Market St., Philadelphia 19104.