Chet’s granddaughter, Sonia, and I (his daughter) recently paid a visit to the U of MN plant path department on the St. Paul campus where Dad was a Professor for 34 years before retiring in 1997. We wanted to notify the department in person, for this was a most important place for Dad as he dedicated years of hard work here mentoring grad students, furthering scientific progress and adding to the scientific database with his extensive research. It also holds many memories for us. We stopped in just days after his passing. What a warm welcome James Bradeen, Dept Head, gave us!
“Mirocha is a big name around here,” he told us as he showed us around.
It was gratifying to learn that the mass spectrometry lab Dad started so many decades ago continues to be an integral part of the department. We visited Dad’s old office (I remembered which one). The white board Sonia fondly recalls drawing on is still on the wall, and the calm, dedicated science atmosphere (like aromatherapy) enveloped us and we stood there soaking it all in. It is good to see the research and teaching legacy continue, for plant path struck us as clearly remaining an active, thriving place!
“Dad!” I said, as we entered his old office. I felt Dad’s presence there in this quiet, book lined room where he spent so much of his working life, with its 3rd floor view down to the sloping courtyard. Several times, during my college years I stopped in to visit while attending the University. A new academician has taken up quarters here, but Dad’s aura lingers.
Decades ago, trying to understand what my father did, I asked him what the name of the class is he teaches. He told me, The Physiology of Host-Parasite Relations. I knew also that he worked with or consulted with regional farmers having trouble with fungi affecting their grains – valuable work and research. But I still didn’t understand the bigger picture of what his work entailed. Last year, wanting to learn more, I at last interviewed him. Probing into my dad’s career, I endeavored to understand and explain the details and timeline of his fascinating work, which resulted in a memoir/essay The following career recap is partially taken from that writing.
My first questions were about the international path my father’s career followed. I don’t think that outcome was an intentional goal, it just happened. In 1966, Dr. C.J. Mirocha, or Chet, innovated the idea for a scientific collaboration with Japan and wrote a grant for this to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The mission was to foster scientific research and information sharing in our post WWII relations with them. He chaired the first and second seminars of this program called the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science Program, meeting every 4 years for the next twenty years until it ended in 1986. From the 60’s on, our family had visiting science colleagues in my father’s field of plant pathology come to the house for dinner -- Dr. Leonov from Russia, for example in the mid 1970’s. Throughout Dad’s career, there were also professors from Japan, Hungary, Poland and England to name a few. International graduate students worked with him as their PhD candidacy professor, coming from Iraq, Italy, India, Africa and so on. The opportunities for widening horizons was reciprocal for us family members, for example, in that I stayed with the family of a French professor in Brest, on the Brittany coast, when I visited France as a teenager in 1979.
The focus of Dad’s career was the study of tiny fungi -- parasitic fungi that attack host grains and other agricultural products that have been improperly stored. These fungi produce deadly substances called mycotoxins as they colonize the crops. Mycotoxins can produce disease and death in both humans and animals. Their detection and analysis involve very precise, difficult techniques and require advanced equipment. Dad developed procedures for the detection and identification of mycotoxins using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. At this point (late 1960’s or early 70’s) he recognized a need for top notch lab equipment and took steps to make that happen for the plant path department. Through grants from the NSF, he was eventually able to build up his research facility at the University of Minnesota into one of the few labs in the U.S. capable of precisely measuring and detecting extremely small samples of mycotoxins.
The Soviet Union had done much research on these same mycotoxins, especially after WWII when large amounts of the Soviet population began to fall ill after eating improperly stored grain. During the war, and primarily in the Soviet Union, European harvests were disrupted because the men had been recruited away as soldiers and labor was left short, so farms were unable to manage the harvest. Many crops lay fallow in the fields over the winter, exposed to snow, damp and cold -- prime conditions for the growth of fungi. The Soviet region with its continuous freeze/thaw cycles provides excellent growing conditions for Fusarium, the genus name of the mycotoxin producing fungi Dr Mirocha studied, of which there are several species. After WWII, the Soviet Union began extensive research on these Fusarium species in order to explain and ameliorate the major health concern that was happening. Research revealed that these Fusarium produce a group of toxic compounds called trichothecenes – and they happen to be the same Fusarium producing trichothecenes that Dad was also researching in his lab on the St. Paul “farm campus” at the University of Minnesota. Dad traveled to the Soviet Union more than once during the 1970’s to present his growing research and knowledge of Fusarium to conferences. He traveled to many other countries as well, Yugoslavia for example, and his reputation and contacts grew within the context of that specialized field of research.
Much of Dad’s work also involved a word our family came to hear often -- zearalenone – an estrogen produced by Fusarium graminearum which causes fertility problems in swine. At these and other symposia around the world he shared his research as principal speaker or led discussions on his and others’ research on these subjects. He also began to give workshops on mycotoxin analysis in the early 80’s. Over time he became an internationally respected and sought-after expert in the field of mycotoxicology, and in 1983 was elected Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society along with 12 other scientists.
In the 1980’s, Dad discovered a new Fusarium species, or as he put it in his typical modest way – his lab discovered it with him as leader. The name of this Fusarium is fusarochromanone Fusarium, discovered in the Arctic region of Norway. Ironically, after the trip to the Norwegian arctic region, which was difficult to get to, he found more samples of fusarochromanone Fusarium in the wheat fields growing adjacent to the University of Alaska – much easier to obtain there!
They had hopes that this new fungus could have practical applications for the medical field, as the fusarochromanone is a capillary inhibitor, and as such might slow the growth of cancer cells, for example in humans. Their research showed that, for example, hens exposed to the fusarochromanone laid infertile eggs. The embryos did not develop due to the lack of blood flow to the eggs. However, the application has not been researched any further, due perhaps to several reasons: the expense involved with production of the fusarium compounds, lack of available grants, patent applications and so on.
I am proud of the fact that my father was first and foremost a scientist. He focused on the data, remaining confident in the integrity of his lab and findings even in the face of one or two geopolitical quagmires “cropping” up. More importantly, he was a true humanitarian, always thinking of the welfare of others. A quiet, unassuming man with deep ideas and a knack for thinking things all the way through, one could feel his empathy for others, seeing them as individuals, especially those who were suffering. Besides being an avid, dedicated skier and bicyclist, he loved the outdoors, was a Boy Scout leader for my two brothers, took my sister and I on a memorable BWCA canoe camping trip including many family camping trips and also served 25 years as a Healtheast hospice volunteer. With his wife, Donna, he helped cook and serve community meals over many years once a month at Loaves and Fishes. Continuing the legacy of his Polish mother who immigrated here alone at age 17, Dad had an open and adventurous spirit. “Adventure walks” were an anticipated event for the grandchildren (and all who wished to go) which he led after holiday meals, setting the stage for further adventures to come for the young ones, always engaging those around him with his enthusiasm for the outdoors and leading by example in remaining fit.
He was a true and constant friend to me all my life, besides being my father, someone with whom I have shared innumerable companionable experiences over the years that have enriched my life with many good memories. When I worked at the University of MN, I would send my poetry to him through intercampus mail, always certain of a thoughtful reading and feedback, and I would do the same for his poetic reflections on nature and spirituality writings as well.
I do so very deeply miss him. Thanks, Dad.
