Robert and Lenore Damrauer biography

Robert and Lenore Damrauer were married for 56 years, most of it spent in Denver, Colorado. They fell in love with the sky and the land there, and chose to raise a family and build a community. Lennie was born in the Washington Heights section of New York City in 1943 and raised in Queens. The daughter of war refugees Karl and Martha Kohn, she was a revered elder sister to Harold and Arlene. Lennie graduated high school at 16 and was the first person in her family to go to college. After commuting to Queens College for two years (Karl's idea), she moved to Michigan, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Chemistry in 1963. Bob was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1941. The second son of Clarence and Rose Damrauer, he was raised by his mother from the age of 7 after his father's death. Surrounded by a loving extended family, he sparked to chemistry while working as a teen at his uncle Sol's factory, Ottawa Chemical. He, too, was first in his family to attend college, and earned his bachelor of science degree with honors in 1963 from the University of Michigan. It was there, at a bench in a chem lab that Lennie and Bob first met each other. Yes, there was instant chemistry.

The two married in 1964 and headed east for post-graduate studies. Lennie went to Boston University, where she earned her PhD in Chemistry with Prof. Ronald Milburn. Bob studied under Prof. Dietmar Seyferth at MIT. After receiving his PhD in Chemistry in 1967, Bob completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard under Prof. Paul D. Bartlett.

In 1968 they moved to Denver where Bob helped build a chemistry department at the University of Colorado's new college in Denver. At the time, UCD consisted of one location in a converted streetcar building in downtown Denver. They also began a family. Sons Craig and Niels were born in 1969 and 1970.

Both Bob and Lennie played important roles in transforming UCD from a fledgling downtown extension into a vital institution serving non-traditional and traditional students alike. Bob as the second professor in a growing Chemistry Department. Lennie, who shared a Chemistry professorship with a fellow mother, helped establish an idea that allowed both to pursue academic careers while also raising children, something that was instrumental in creating a welcoming culture for women across the school. While both were strong academics, Bob and Lennie felt it was important to make science approachable for all. At UCD Bob established informal noontime science discussions starting in the 1970s. Later, in 2013 he and Lennie established a public STEM lectureship for general audiences. It was named in honor of both their parents who had not been afforded the same educational opportunities. Their allegiance to Michigan never wavered and the family spent a sabbatical year in Ann Arbor in 1980-81 with Bob and Lennie at the chemistry department, and the boys becoming expert in pinball at the Union, along with superfans of wide receiver Anthony Carter.

Bob's research at UCD began with the study of silicon atoms inserted strategically into organic systems. Silicon is a close relative of carbon in the periodic chart, and Bob's replacement studies were aimed at probing similarities and differences in the behavior of the two elements. He later worked on a wide variety of research problems, including studies of gas-phase ion reactivity, and was the author of more than seventy papers. He involved many undergraduates in basic research, a mission that was important to him throughout his career. In addition, Bob served as the Chemistry Department Chair twice (1974-79 and 2001-03), Acting Dean of the Graduate School in 1989, and eventually as Special Assistant to the Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. From the beginning, he established mentorship protocols for junior faculty in many departments. Bob stopped by offices to check on research, took colleagues from across the campus to lunch, and instilled confidence in countless faculty members. Those who knew him best recognize his extraordinary kindness and his way of being on your side even while disagreeing with you. In 2023, Bob was awarded UCD's highest honor, the University Medal, by the Board of Regents, for significant and notable contributions to CU Denver, the state, the nation, and the world.

Lennie was beloved in the classroom and taught several subjects in chemistry at the university for 13 years. When computers were beginning to emerge as research tools she started programming them, feeding punchcards into a room-sized mainframe. She quickly fell in love with the programming itself and her career then advanced beyond chemistry. Lennie started working professionally as a programmer in 1982, and in 1988 joined Children's Hospital of Denver, where she worked until retirement in 2009. She studied and mastered many early programming languages including FORTRAN, Cobalt, Forth, and Pascal (remember those?), a passion that never stopped. In 2014, she learned C++ to collaborate with artist son Craig on an installation at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. In 2020 she learned the iOS programming environment to help son Niels build an iPhone app that he uses today in an inorganic chemistry course at CU Boulder. She was also very dedicated to service, volunteering as a high school tutor in the Denver Public Schools, mentoring students at UCD and developing the website for a nursing scholarship. But arguably Lennie's largest contribution was to culinary history. In the late 1970's she invented the Egg in the House — an egg cracked into a piece of bread with a hole cut out of it and then fried in a skillet. What started as a nutritious gift for her children turned into a gift for, well, humanity. Lennie was known for her kindness, generosity and deeply curious spirit. She was a joyful seeker of knowledge and a keen-eyed observer, loved by nearly everyone she came in contact with. Lennie found her greatest pleasure in her garden, constantly planting, weeding, and tending baseball bat sized zucchini. She was known as a sharer of cuttings and vegetables and made an indelible mark on those around her through nature. It's hard to find a friend or neighbor of hers that doesn't own a descendant of one of her many, many plants. She often said that if chemistry hadn't caught her eye, botany would have. Despite being 4'11" on a good day, she had a decent jump shot. Lennie passed away on November 21, 2020, at the age of 77.

Bob and Lennie shared a great love of the outdoors, something that became part of their lives together and was a gift they passed on to their children and grandchildren. The family took frequent trips to Rocky Mountain National Park and longer trips to other national parks. Their car was constantly pulled to the side of the road for animal sightings, elk especially, and the trunk always contained multiple pairs of binoculars and field guides. This love extended to the home where there were microscopes, telescopes and many dinnertime discussions about the workings of the natural world. Their livingroom displayed a wonderful collection of bird and wasp's nests, eggshells, seashells, minerals, fossils, acorns, moths, butterflies, pinecones, shark's teeth, snake skins, anything that fascinated the family.

Bob and Lennie loved to hike together, and in her mid-seventies Lennie successfully summited 14,276 foot Gray's Peak. Bob was content to pick her up at the trailhead later.