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My parents Mary and Morris Farber came to Canada and the
U.S. from Russia. Through hard work in a confectionery store
on Queen Street, they were able to send my brother Lionel
(Lester) and me to the University of Toronto. I graduated
from the Medical School in 1942. I received a PhD in Biochemistry
from the University of California, Berkeley in 1949. My parents
sent my sister Sophie Goldblatt to the Julliard School of
Music in New York and she became a professional pianist. My
brother received his PhD in Biochemistry at the University
of Toronto but had to emigrate to the U.S. to obtain a faculty
appointment.
After I earned my PhD, my wife Ruth and I wanted to return
to Canada. Unfortunately, this was impossible at the time.
No university in Canada would accept a fulltime Jewish faculty
member in their medical school.
We remained in the U.S. for more than 25 years with positions
at Tulane University, the University of Pittsburgh and Fels
Cancer Research Institute of Temple University.
I was appointed the Chairman of the Department of Pathology
and Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto
in 1976. I was then able to return to Toronto with my wife
and my daughter, Naomi Beth. I remained there until my academic
retirement in 1993, the year my wife passed away. I married
my current wife and close companion Henrietta Keller Schleider
in Columbia, South Carolina in 2000.
My daughter is Professor of Social Work at the University
of South Carolina and Henrietta's daughter is married to Rabbi
Sanford Marcus at the Tree of Life Temple there.
I am most proud of my contributions to Toronto and my profession
as an active contributor to cancer research and as a member
of The Surgeon General’s Committee on Smoking and Health
of the U.S. Government (1961 – 1964). Our deliberations
and conclusions on the Committee have had a major positive
effect on the ban of cigarette smoking as the single strongest
environmental pollutant worldwide, including Canada.
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