Gerhard Ehrenspeck

EHRENSPECK, GERHARD

Dr. Gerhard Ehrenspeck, 81, of Silver Spring, MD passed away on January 3, 2023. He is survived by his wife Susan (Reisteter), two daughters Kirsten (Jon) Tippets and Lisa Ehrenspeck, sister Eva Ehrenspeck, and his four grandchildren Kiraline, Jenavieve, Katelynn, and Jonathan. He is pre-deceased by his parents and his brother, Helmut Ehrenspeck.

Born in Munich, Germany, Gerhard was the son of the late Dr. Hermann and Lucie (Decker) Ehrenspeck, and emigrated to the United States when he was 12. He graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Physics (1962), and earned a M.S. (1965) and Ph.D. (1969) in Biophysics from Penn State. 

He worked at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in West Berlin and Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main, and returned to the U.S. for a fellowship at the Mount Sinai Medical School. He was an Assistant Professor at the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Athens, and also worked at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland before joining the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review in 1988 where he managed CSR’s cellular biology and physiology study section until his retirement in 2006. 

Gerhard enjoyed many hobbies and interests, especially art, culture, anthropology, and nature. An avid traveler, photographer, and storyteller, he loved to capture the beauty in all things. A celebration of life will be held on April 15, 2023 at 1pm at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, MD. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to Doctors Without Borders or Habitat for Humanity.

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