Max Katz, PhD

Max Katz, PhD, born Seattle, March 27, 1919, to Isaac Jacob and Sophie Katz. Bess Kremen of Seattle was his elder sister, and his brother is Sam Katz of Tel Aviv. Max graduated from Garfield HS in 1936, earned his BS, and MS degrees from the (then) School of Fisheries at the University of Washington, 1941. Max was elected to Sigma Xi, and Phi Sigma honoraries. In 1941 Max was drafted into the Army and assigned to the 185th General Hospital. He served at Ft. Lewis, and Camp Abbott. In 1944 he was shipped overseas and assigned to detached service in Plymouth and Southampton, where he and his buddies could fool around running dispensaries, dispensing medicine and sympathy without the watchful eye of a commanding officer. Thus their time was freed up to chase English girls, doing his part in the war effort. After the war, he was sent to France to tend to the medical needs of the troops as they were being shipped home. There he used his French skills to enchant les demoiselles. He and Doris Sinaiko of Madison WI were married on March 19, 1946. While working for the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton WI, Diane was born. He returned to the U of Wash to earn his PhD, his thesis: “The Hematology of the Coho Salmon”. Working for the Public Health Service in Cincinnati, OH, David and Deborah were born. Max got sick of the Midwest weather and transferred to Corvallis, OR where Peter was born. In 1960 he joined the faculty at the U of Wash College of Fisheries, teaching and doing research in the biology of water pollution. In 1960 the Katz family moved to Mercer Island. In the 1970’s he joined the US Marine Labs were he worked with a variety of organizations. Max has been very involved in the local Jewish community. He has been affiliated with the Orthodox Jewish groups: Macazikay Hadas; and Bikur Cholim. He later was affiliated with Shevet Achim on Mercer Island where he was the Cohen Godol. He was a member of the Israel Investment Club and other Jewish organizations. Max was a long-time member of the Izaak Walton League, a member of the Pacific Fisheries Biologists, the American Fisheries Society, and the Marine Biologist’s Association of the UK. Max was highly regarded as a prominent fisheries biologist throughout his career, and had numerous papers published on his research. He specialized in the races of herring in Washington State, the fecundity of the races of herring, and of course eating herring!!!Max and Doris were married 45 years until her death in 1991. One of the true loves of his life was refurbishing Peugeots. Max suffered a stroke in 1999 while walking his Sunday six-miles on the MI Floating Bridge and lived for the last ten years of his life at the Caroline Kline Galland Home in Seattle where he was given the utmost in care and compassion. The family is so grateful to the wonderful staff for assisting Max for all those years! Max is survived by his four children, his favorite “son”, Alexander Nouvakhov and five grandchildren. Donations may be made to Kline Galland Home.