By Jordan Darling

CSUDH lost a valuable member of the Toro family March 3. After a long battle with  illness, Dr. Getachew Kidane, a biology professor for 22 years, passed away at age 70, in  Torrance, California.

Dr. Kidane was born in Dessie, Ethiopia Oct. 22, 1948 and pursued a degree in medical technology from Haile Selassie Medical School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

After a successful three years at the school,  Dr. Kidane moved to the United States with little but his suitcase, a tennis racket, and a desire for a higher education.

Kidane graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from CSUDH and moved on to complete his doctorate iin molecular biology from UCLA.

After many years and two very impressive research grants in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil  and Melbourne, Australia Dr. Kidane came back to his Alma Mater in 1990 to take up a post as an associate professor of mollecular biology and immunology.

Dr. Kidane later became a tenured professor in the biology department and retired in 2012.

Dr. Kidane was remembered fondly as a kind and gentle soul by his colleague and student Anthony Diaz, a senior instructional support technician in the biology department.

“ Dr. Kidane always encouraged me to be the best student I could be, and he helped me achieve that goal by being as critical and supportive of my work as he could be,” Diaz said an emal. “ Dr. Kidane was the first professor to plant the seed in my head that made me fall in love with cellular and molecular biology. There would be many others who would reinforce that love for biology that I still have. I am forever grateful to him for that.”

Dr. John Thomlinson, the biology department chair, echoed those sentiments.

“He was a friend as well as a colleague to many of us, and his untimely retirement for health reasons was a blow to the Biology department,” Thomlinson in an email announcing Kidane’s death.”  He fought on for several years, and he never lost his sense of humor.”

Dr. Kidane’s funeral was held March 20 at Forest Lawn in Cypress. He is survived by fifteen siblings and  many nieces and nephews.