Bernard Roizman arrived in New York City in 1947 with dreams of becoming a writer or a lawyer - professions that deal in words and rules, presumably because he'd seen enough of the world's lawlessness during WWII in Eastern Europe. But after enrolling at Temple University in Philadelphia, he made two discoveries that changed everything.
One was Betty Cohen, a fellow student who agreed to share his coat locker in exchange for discounted Philadelphia Orchestra tickets. She became his wife of 70 years, proving that even in science, the best partnerships start with a good deal.
The other was microbiology. Required courses, but they hooked him. "It was my second love at first sight - that of my wife preceded it," he wrote in a 2015 autobiography.
Over the next seven decades - 52 of them at the University of Chicago - Dr. Roizman became the world's go-to expert on herpes simplex virus, the charming microbe behind cold sores, genital infections, and, in rare cases, encephalitis. He died at 96 on April 13 in a Chicago hospital, survived by his son Arthur.
"He was really the herpes virus person par excellence," said Peter Palese, a microbiology professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Which is about as high praise as you can get in a field where your subject matter is the gift that keeps on giving.