William Franklin (Bill) Dove, 88, died on Jan. 27, 2025, surrounded by his loving family at Capitol Lakes Senior Living Center in Madison, Wisconsin. He is remembered as a scientist, a mentor, and a devoted family leader. Born on June 20, 1936 to William Franklin Dove and Ruth (née Stone) Dove in Orono, Maine, at age 9, his family moved to Oak Park, where Bill began working as an early-morning newspaper carrier for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, a job he passed on to his younger siblings.
After graduating from Amherst College (AB Chemistry, 1958) and earning a PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1962, he worked as a research fellow with scientific pioneers Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner. In 1965, he and his wife Alexandra moved to Madison, Wisconsin where he took his first (and final) position at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
He made tremendous contributions to biomedical research on cancer over the course of his career. He and his colleagues aimed to achieve a deep understanding of the biology of colon cancer and thereby to impact its management in humans through diagnosis, prognosis, and early detection. His work featured imagination and intellectual rigor, while his articles describing the work featured scientific clarity and incisiveness. His contributions received recognition across national and international scientific communities. He was Professor Emeritus of Oncology and Medical Genetics, and Streisinger Professor of Experimental Biology at UW-Madison. He received research fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Cancer Society and was honored with memberships to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bill was preceded in death by Alexandra, his wife of 58 years, as well as his siblings, Felicia, Christopher (Kit), and Ellen Dove. He is survived by his children, William (Kiki Jamieson), Patrick (Deborah Myerson), and Suzanne (Miguel García-Gosálvez); his brother, John Dove and sister-in-law, Gloria Dove; his brother-in-law, Julian Shedlovsky and sister-in-law, Mary Freeman Dove; many nephews and nieces; his cousin, Felicia Brown; and seven grandchildren (Louis, Samuel, Miranda, Theo, Rafael, Henry, and Reuven).