Remembering Dr. Art Alberts

Alberts, Arthur 7/23/1964 – 12/4/2016 Lowell, MI Arthur “SweetPea” Alberts, 52, died peacefully in his Lowell Michigan home on Sunday, December 4th surrounded by family. Born July 23, 1964 in Englewood, New Jersey to Tom and Joy Alberts, Art spent his youth in Poway, California. As first chair tuba in the Poway High School Band, Art marched in two Rose Parades. A typical 80’s Californian, he attended surf camp and feathered his blond hair. He attended the University of California at San Diego for his bachelors degree in Biochemistry and played for the Triton Rugby Team and the North County Rugby Club as Loose Head Prop. He met his future wife, Lisa Alberts of Lake Tahoe, California in the Triton Pub while sweaty in his jersey and holding two pitchers of beer. Soon after their marriage in 1988 Art began graduate school at UCSD in the department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Their first child, Corinne Helena, was born in San Diego in 1993 only one month after he defended his thesis. The young family moved to London, England for Art’s postdoctoral work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund where they travelled extensively in an old Volvo. Their second daughter, Isobel Mae, was born in 1996 while living in the Tottenham neighborhood of London. Their repatriation came when Art secured a research position at the Cancer Center of the University of California at San Francisco in 1997 in the lab of Frank McCormick. In 2000, Art moved his family to Grand Rapids, Michigan to become a Principal Investigator in charge of the Laboratory of Cellular Signaling and Integration at the newly founded Van Andel Research Institute. He started mountain biking for exercise and destroyed many bikes while racing in the ‘Clydesdale’ class. Art leaves behind a large body of work contributing to the understanding of cancer and its cellular progression as well as many fond memories with his friends, colleagues, and family of a man who never shied away from a fart joke. A wake will be held in Lowell, Michigan with family and friends. Donations, in lieu of flowers, can be made to the West Michigan Mountain Biking Association in his name. www.wmmba.org WMMBA President, 2939 Wilson Ave. SW #403, Grandville, MI 49468