Mickey Schurr

In his own words:

“J. Michael (Mickey) Schurr was born on Nov. 10, 1937, in Pittsfield, MA, to Virginia and Frank Schurr, both of whom were natives of the Pacific NW. He spent parts of his youth with his grandmother, Hellen Dean, who lived in a waterfront cottage on Bainbridge Island. His early exposure to the beaches, salt water, forests, and streams of the Puget Sound basin kindled an abiding fascination with the fauna and flora that inhabited such places. His father introduced him to camping and fishing in mountain lakes and streams, and salmon fishing in the Sound. He started alpine skiing at age 9 and later added ski jumping and X-country upon joining his high school ski team. [One special adventure during his high school years was spending a summer on Waldron Island, WA, where he cut hay and hunted rabbits.]

At Bellevue High School he encountered three extraordinary mentors, Martha Hardy (mathematics), Art Haines (biology), and Bob Whitney (chemistry, physics, and tennis coach), who profoundly influenced his future trajectory. After graduation (1955), he worked four summers for the US Forest Service in the Packwood District, building a new section of the Pacific Crest Trail in the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area during the first summer, and as part of a two-man, three-burro trail maintenance crew the following summers. Those experiences instilled an enduring love of high-country alpine meadows and their magnificent flora. During the school years, Mickey attended Yale University on a scholarship, majoring in biophysics. He took up gymnastics to meet his need for intense physical activity.

During the summer of 1956, a romance blossomed between Mickey and Karen Martin, a high school classmate and fellow ski racer, who had the same love of mountain meadows and other wild places that he did. They married in 1958 and lived in New Haven during the 1958-1959 school year. After a summer in Tennessee, where Mickey was an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they moved to Berkeley, CA, where he earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from the U. of California in 1964. By that time, they had two young daughters, Kerrie and Becky, who were the highlights of their daddy’s life.

After post-doctoral studies at the U. of Oregon in Eugene, Mickey joined the Chemistry Department at the U. of Washington in 1966. He taught first year chemistry, upper division physical chemistry, and occasional small graduate courses. He introduced topics from biochemistry, biophysics, and environmental chemistry into the freshman and physical chemistry curricula before such topics appeared in textbooks. He conducted major upgrades of both first year and physical chemistry laboratory courses, and developed three entirely new lecture courses, one devoted to macromolecules and two in connection with a new biochemistry major. He contributed significantly to the planning of two major renovations of Bagley Hall and to the siting and design of the new Chemistry building, especially its ultralow vibration and low electromagnetic noise basement labs, completed in 1995. He mentored or co-mentored 22 Ph.D. students and 7 postdoctoral fellows, all of whom significantly advanced the research in his lab and became lifelong friends.

His research objectives were to assess the physical properties, spontaneous motions, and association/dissociation behavior of biological macromolecules, including rodlike viruses, collagen, poly-L-lysine, and especially linear and supercoiled circular DNAs. The effects of electrostatic interactions and elastic deformability on macromolecular motions were investigated intensively. New laser optical methods using rapid digital data acquisition and photon correlation processing techniques were developed to measure the speeds of spontaneous fluctuations in position, orientation, and shape of filamentous macromolecules, as well as spontaneous bending and twisting deformations of many different DNAs. Determination of the intrinsic elastic constants for twisting and bending of DNAs under various conditions consumed nearly three decades. That work yielded substantial evidence for a fluctuating structural equilibrium between two different coexisting kinds of helical states of DNA with nearly identical twists per base-pair, modestly different lengths per base-pair, and very different twisting and bending elastic constants that can prevail over large domains up to 200 bp or more. That phenomenon accounted for a large number of apparently unrelated observations and puzzles in the literature and is likely involved in the regulation of gene expression. Mickey continued working on the relevant theory of that phenomenon for another 15 years after retiring at age 70.

During his time in the Chem department, he endeavored to create an atmosphere of mutual appreciation and support that would enable all of the talented people in his department (faculty, grad students, postdocs, and the various support staff) to thrive and make their best contributions to its instructional, research, and community outreach efforts. He also tried to tilt new hiring decisions toward candidates working in promising new fields that seemed poised for fairly rapid expansion. Thanks primarily to three extraordinary Chairmen, Mickey’s ambition was realized to retire from a more diverse, cohesive, collaborative, and much stronger department than the one he joined in 1966.

Kerrie and Becky were introduced to camping and hiking as toddlers, initially riding in kiddie packs on Mickey’s back. Over time they acquired their own backpacks. Family backpacking trips to Moose Lake in the Olympics, upper Snowgrass Flats in the Goat Rocks, sections of the Olympic Beach trails, a knoll above Summerland at Mt. Rainier, and a family ascent of Mt. St. Helens in 1973 created many happy memories. Memorable in a different way was an epic hosing that our family endured along with the Ansell family during a soggy retreat from an off-trail location rather a long way up and far above the Quinault River trail.

A couple of climbing misadventures during his trail crew days persuaded Mickey that he should learn about technical climbing with a rope and hardware. In Berkeley and later in Eugene, Mickey began technical rock and mountain climbing, which he continued through and beyond his time at the UW. He ’recruited’ Karen, Kerrie, and Becky to the sport and climbed numerous ’technical’ routes with them, including a different rock tower with each daughter in the Dolomiti of NE Italy. He recruited other family members when they came to Seattle. He also found climbing partners among his fellow faculty, undergrads, grad students, and postdocs of his acquaintance, and scientists from other institutions. His favorite activity was exploratory climbing, finding new routes up peaks in the Cascades and also in the Coast Mountains of BC, which he visited with very good friends during 22 expeditions from 1980 to 2007.

Mickey and Karen took up X-country skiing at Karen’s instigation in 1980. Over time that evolved into telemark skiing in the backcountry, which Mickey pursued with family and friends for over two decades, before returning to alpine skiing with Karen on a mid-weekly ski bus to Stevens Pass and Crystal Mountain.

Mickey and Karen meddled as much and as often as they could in the raising of their four grandkids (Tom, Ross, Kate, and Sarah). They sponsored all-family holidays away from home: Ft. Worden at Thanksgiving, Lake Wenatchee-Leavenworth between Christmas and New Year, and Whidbey Island during the summers. A special occasion for Mickey (73) was a 4-day backpack trip into the Goat Rocks with Ross (16) and Kate (15), where they learned the value of an ice axe when hiking and glissading on late summer snow, and visited favorite spots: the summit of Old Snowy, Goat Lake, and Cispus Basin.

To the end of his days, Mickey remained immensely grateful to the ’village’ of family members, mentors, and friends of all ages, who in various places and ways assisted him along his life journey and contributed so much to make all aspects of his life so rewarding. He is also very grateful to the medical personnel who intervened at crucial times to keep him alive and more or less functional. Mere words do not suffice to express either his profound gratitude or his abiding love for his spouse, Karen, who is responsible for practically all of the really important and wonderful experiences in his adult life, and with whom he shared their greatest adventure, the ’raising’ of Kerrie and Becky.”

Additional Notes from Family:

Mickey lived in several states growing up, including Massachusetts, California, Missouri, and Washington. This was largely due to moves resulting from his father’s job opening new factories for the war effort during WWII. As a result of all the moves, Mickey attended 20 schools by the time he graduated from high school!

Mickey was a regular bicycle commuter to the UW, even when he had to strap crutches on his bike and pedal in a cast. Throughout his life, he wrote complicated mathematical formulas and all manner of documents on yellow engineering notepads. His preferred writing implements were meticulously sharpened wooden yellow pencils; he kept many close at hand on the big oval dining room table that served as his home desk.

Mickey and Karen often hosted dinner parties and other social gatherings for extended family, work colleagues, climbing friends, neighbors, and others at their home near Green Lake. They graciously welcomed new faces and nurtured lifelong friendships. Both were regular attendees at Class of ’55 Bellevue HS reunion events, which occurred more frequently as the years went by. Those who knew Mickey will remember his puns, silliness, monologues on DNA structure, and enthusiasm for high places in the Cascades and other mountain ranges. He loved being a grandfather and hid Easter eggs in the garden for his grandchildren every spring and organized elaborate Christmas gift scavenger hunts with clues that became ever more challenging as the grandkids got older. During annual trips to Whidbey Island, Ft. Worden, and Lake Wenatchee, three generations enjoyed bicycle rides, beach walks, sledding, and skiing.

Travel to scientific conferences took Mickey (and occasionally Karen too) to Russia, Japan, Western Europe, Mexico, and other places. He studied the local language ahead of these trips and always looked for nearby hills and peaks to ascend. In 1974 the family spent 8 months living near Zurich, Switzerland, while Mickey worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology during a sabbatical leave from UW. In their later years, Mickey and Karen explored parts of Australia and New Zealand together and joined a bike group of seniors based on Bainbridge Island. Mickey’s annual holiday letters were quite hilarious, highlighting life’s mishaps and providing nicknames for himself like George Zorch, Limpalong Chemistry, Green Lake Duck, Coot Ranger, Il Ducko, and Blabhard Chemistry.

This chemist and climber remained independently mobile and mentally sharp until the end of his life, when complications from a planned heart procedure caused a rapid decline over just a few weeks. Mickey is survived by Karen, his wife of 68 years, who feels lost without him. Their two daughters – Kerrie Schurr (husband Bill Longabaugh) and Becky Schurr Hartley (husband Dave) – and four grandchildren -- Tom Longabaugh, Ross Hartley (wife Camille Bien), Kate Longabaugh, and Sarah Hartley -- miss him dearly, especially his vibrant energy and perpetual humor. Mickey also loved and was loved by his siblings and half-siblings – Judy Braun, Laurie Howse, Paul Schurr, and Lisa Dare, who preceded him in death. He is survived by wonderful nephews and nieces, as well as cousins, and their families.

A celebration of Mickey’s life will be held at a later date, likely in the spring of 2027. Please check back for details.

You are encouraged to honor Mickey by going on a walk or hike with your family or friends. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Mickey’s memory to one of the funds below:

(1) Mickey and Karen Schurr Endowed Graduate Support Fund

 (Support Us | Department of Chemistry | University of Washington)

(2) Washington Trails Association

(Donate to Appeal 2026 Winter)

(3) The Mountaineers

(Conservation and Advocacy Fund — The Mountaineers)

We invite you to share your memories and photos of Mickey below.

Arrangements Entrusted to Emmick Family Funeral Homes ~ Seattle, WA