Retired VCU professor James F. Stubbins dies

At the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, Dr. James Fisk Stubbins, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, was renowned for his boxes.

An aficionado of scientific literature, "he recorded every paper he ever read on an index card. He had boxes of them," said Dr. Richard A. Glennon, chairman of the VCU Department of Medicinal Chemistry.

"If you ever had a scientific question, he was the one to turn to. He knew it all, from the most important scientific discoveries to the smallest minutia."

The pharmacy school staff also sought him on "university policy questions, personnel questions, personal questions or whatever. He was the answer man," Glennon said.

The "answer man," who retired in 1996, will be honored at a celebration of life today, Saturday, at 2:30 p.m. at the Brandermill Woods retirement community clubhouse, 2100 Brandermill Parkway in Midlothian.

The 78-year-old Midlothian resident died Wednesday, weeks after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer of the stomach.

"He was an excellent, excellent teacher and well-recognized by his students," recalled Dr. Lamont "Monty" Kier, emeritus VCU professor of medicinal chemistry and Dr. Stubbins' friend of 55 years.

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Born in Honolulu in 1931, Dr. Stubbins was living with his family in Manila when the Japanese began their advance to capture the Philippines the day after they bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Dr. Stubbins, his brother and his mother were sent to safety on the last passenger ship out of Manila Bay before the Philippines capitulated to the Japanese in May 1942.

His father, a chief engine inspector for the Army Air Forces, stayed behind to get as many Allied planes out of the country as possible and was captured.

The refugees settled for the duration of the war with Dr. Stubbins' paternal grandparents in Denver, where both boys contracted polio and Dr. Stubbins' younger brother, Charles Robert, died.

Dr. Stubbins, who was 12 at the time, eventually was put on a walking regimen.

"They kept adding a block every week until he got to the point where he could walk 6 miles a day," said his wife, June Kepple Stubbins.

When he was 14, the family moved to Las Vegas. Dr. Stubbins earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Nevada at Reno and then served in the Army.

He later earned a master's degree in organic chemistry at Purdue University and a doctorate in medicinal chemistry at the University of Minnesota.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two daughters, Nancy Moore of Saline, Mich., and Diane Stubbins of Farmville; a son, James Robert "J.R." Stubbins of Greenville, N.C.; and six grandchildren.