Obituary for Gustav Schoser

Gustav Schoser of Hofheim (Taunus) died on 5 January 2012 at the age of 87. Mr Schoser was born on 22 August 1924 in Trochtelfingen (Hohenzollern) as the eldest of four children of Maria and Gustav Schoser (sen.). He first studied theology, switched later to biology and graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen. On 11 April 1955, he married Rita Geißler. The Schosers had four children. The family first lived in Tübingen and moved to Frankfurt (Main) in 1968 when Gustav became director of the Frankfurt Botanical Garden Palmengarten. In 1992, he retired from this post and moved to Hofheim.

Gustav's motto 'attempto' (I dare)

Mr Schoser received several decorations among which the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and several botanic awards. Several orchids carry his name. He also published numerous books and articles on gardening. Mr Schoser is survived by his wife Rita and their four children Claudia Schoser-Blottner of Berlin, Regina Philipps of Waldenburg, Susanne Hillmann of Wiesbaden and Benedikt Schoser of Munich and their five grand-children. A memorial service will take place at Frankfurt's main cemetery on Friday, 13 January 2012.

The medicine man

Searching the Internet for Schosers' whereabouts and achievements, one is sooner or later bound to come across Benedikt G.H. Schoser. Arguably, Benedikt produces by far the most hits when searching the world-wide web for the name 'Schoser'. Hence, you would expect him to be a movie star, football player, astronaut or at least politician. Far from that, Benedikt is professor of medicine at the Baur Institute of the University of Munich. Being an academic, he seems to have firmly adopted the credo of the academic world which is 'publish or perish' explaining his wide Internet presence.

The Biomedexperts website provides for a profile of Benedikt's specialisations and publications. To give a taste, the most recent of his 81 publications recorded at this site is entitled 'The p.G154S mutation of the alpha-B crystallin gene (CRYAB) causes late-onset distal myopathy'. In layman's terms, Benedikt is specialised in neurology, more particularly myotonic dystrophy which is a genetic, neuromuscular disorder which is characterized by the slow relaxation of the muscles after voluntary contraction, usually becoming apparent in early adulthood. Due to its genetic origin, research on this disease involves the analysis of mutations in the DNA.

Based on the cities where an author or any of his co-authors have publications, the Biomedexperts website pictures a personal network. In Benedikt's case, it stretches over four continents - another indication of his world-wide web...