Garret Martin Ihler, 79, died August 30 at his home in Bainbridge Island, Washington. Garret was born November 4, 1939 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Gerald Ihler and Marjorie (Martin) Ihler. The Ihler family moved to Great Falls, Montana when Garret and his younger sister, Margie, were in grade school. Garret graduated from Great Falls High School in 1957 and went on to the California Institute of Technology. He graduated from Caltech in 1961 and subsequently obtained his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University in 1967 in the shared laboratory of Nobel laureates James D. Watson and Walter Gilbert. He did his postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, where he met his first wife, Karin Ippen-Ihler. He joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1969 and later received his MD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976. He and Karin joined the faculty of the newly founded Texas A&M College of Medicine in 1977. Garret was professor and head of the Department of Medical Biochemistry & Genetics and later held the Tom and Jean McMullin Chair of Genetics. After Karin’s death in 1995, he married Liisa Peterson in 1999 and subsequently retired from the College of Medicine in 2004.

He is survived by his wife, Liisa Peterson; and his children, Alexander Ihler and Elisabeth Ihler; as well as stepchildren, Anne Menzel and Galen Menzel.