This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 27, 2009 - The memorial Wednesday for Robert E. Sparks will be a concert in honor of a scientist who sang at Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Sparks sang with the Handel Choir in Baltimore; the Cleveland Orchestra, under the direction of Robert Shaw, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Chorus. He traveled with both orchestras to Carnegie Hall in New York.
Mr. Sparks, a former Washington University professor and bio-medical researcher, died at his home in the Central West End on March 21, of acute leukemia. He was 78. Until recently, he had been a longtime resident of Kirkwood.
"Bob was a talented tenor," said Robert Wilson, a friend for 35 years who will be speaking at Mr. Sparks' memorial. "He had a very broad knowledge of a lot of things having to do with the arts.
"He also had this special quality," Wilson recalled. "Bob was always the smartest guy in the room but he never came off that way. In fact, at the end of a visit with him, you felt that you were the smartest person in the room."
He co-authored two scientific textbooks and published more than 50 scientific papers. When he died, he was in the midst of writing a scientific paper and had a lecture scheduled in the fall.
"He wasn't finished; that's what's hardest for us," said Mr. Sparks' wife, Adna Eitemiller Sparks. "Bob fought leukemia for two years, working as fast as he could to stay ahead of the hospitals and doctors. Every time he was able to sit or stand, he was working on something. We all feel that he still had so much to do or to give. All that he's done is fine, but he wanted to do more. He had a long way to go."
Mr. Sparks was born in Marshall, Mo., and grew up in Independence, Mo. He graduated from William Chrisman High School in Independence and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He served in the U.S. Army Chemical Center in Edgewood, Md., during the Korean War. In 1960, he earned a doctorate in engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Following his doctorate years, Mr. Sparks worked three years for Exxon in New Jersey. He began his teaching career at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. In 1972, he became director of the Biological Transport Laboratory at Washington University; he was later named Washington University's Stanley and Lucy Lopata professor of chemical engineering.
"He was a distinguished professor; a fantastic teacher who knew so much about so many things," Wilson said. "He very much loved teaching and had unique and very effective ideas about how to teach."
In a 1978 article in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics on "Teaching Thinking," Mr. Sparks explained why he believed in creative learning and the necessity for students to take an active role in learning how to think.
"During a lecture," said Mr. Sparks, "the only mind working at reasonable efficiency is that of the lecturer."
Mr. Sparks overcame the lecture barrier in part by dividing his students into small groups of six or seven; these became known as the Friday Groups.
After more than 20 years at Washington University, in 1995 Mr. Sparks and several colleagues left to form Particle and Coating Technologies Inc., a St. Louis-based company that focused on research, development and licensing of new scientific processes and products.
Adna Sparks, whom he'd met at the Baltimore USO during his stint in the Army, joined him at Particle and Coating as the company's business manager. They sold the company to KV Pharmaceutical in 2007.
Although Mr. Sparks was approaching his mid-70s at the time, the sale by no means meant his retirement. He continued to serve as a consultant to industrial, educational and research organizations, to lecture widely on the processes and applications of microencapsulation, and to participate in forums throughout the U.S. and Europe.
He was also writing a book complete with cartoon illustrations for children in middle school. He wanted them to learn the "loose thinking" or "inventive reasoning" technique that he used with his college students.
"It was one of his projects that he wanted to finish in retirement, whenever that came," said Adna Sparks.
Mr. Sparks made fundamental contributions to the development of the artificial kidney and the artificial pancreas, and was a member of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs his entire career, serving on the organization's board and as its president for a year. He had served on the Scientific Council of the American Red Cross and the National Institutes of Health Study Sections. His other memberships included the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Controlled Release Society and the American Association for Advancement of Science. He was a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Mr. Sparks also organized and taught a course in microencapsulation for businesses through the Center for Professional Development twice a year in the U.S., then Europe, for about 25 years.
Mr. Sparks' efforts did not go unnoticed. In addition to his endowed chair in the Washington University School of Engineering, in 1984 he received the Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. In 1980, he was awarded the national Chemical Manufacturer's Catalyst Award for outstanding teachers.
Mr. Sparks was preceded in death by his parents, Clara Magnolia Padgett Sparks and Robert Edward Sparks.
Surviors, in addition to his wife of 53 years, are his three sons and mountain-hiking buddies: Christian Sparks, a rehabilitation counselor for homeless clients at St. Patrick Center, and Mark Sparks, lead flutist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, both of St. Louis, and David Sparks, the owner of Digital Animation Services in Denver, Colo. He is also survived by two grandchildren, Tory and Luke Sparks.
Mr. Sparks' memorial concert will feature members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, including his son, Mark. The concert will be at 4 p.m. on April 1 at the First Congregational Church of Webster Groves, 500 West Lockwood, in Webster Groves. His ashes will be interred in Woodlawn, Md.
Memorial donations may be given to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society-St. Louis, 77 Westport Plaza, # 101, St Louis, Mo. 63146, 314-878-0780, www.leukemia-lymphoma.org .
Gloria Ross is the head of Okara Communications and the storywriter for AfterWords, an obituary-writing and production service.