The Hepatitis B Foundation has announced with great sadness the passing of Paul Witte on Feb. 13.
In 1991, Paul and his wife, Janine, worked with Tim and Joan Block to found the Hepatitis B Foundation and help a young family devastated by the liver disease. What began as a grassroots effort in their kitchen has today, 30 years later, become the nation’s leading research and disease advocacy organization solely dedicated to finding a cure for hepatitis B.
“The foundation has become the global authority on hepatitis B and a strong, growing organization, which is a lasting tribute to Paul, a truly remarkable person,” Tim Block, president of the foundation, said. “Paul will be remembered as an extremely creative person, and his extraordinary skills were evident in his professional life.”
Paul received design awards from both Industrial Design magazine and the Museum of Modern Art for his work. As a product design engineer, Witte was responsible for the popular Head aluminum tennis racquets in the 1970s, when using the lightweight metal in racquets was a significant innovation.
During the 1980s, Witte joined a team at Biomedical Engineering Trust in N.J. He designed orthopedic hip implants and eventually designed pieces for almost every other joint in the body as well.
“Paul was a uniquely talented individual, an extraordinarily generous person, warm, caring and a friend,” said Joel Rosen, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors. “He will be deeply missed by me and all of us at the Foundation.”
One of the best decisions Paul always said he made was marrying Janine, whom he met while traveling to Corning, N.Y. They had a fairytale romance and lived a true love story in New Hope. They enjoyed 42 years as life and work partners in their product design and desktop publishing company, Originetics.
Paul was always designing and creating – his brain active, hands drawing and sketching out new ideas – even at social events. He and Janine responded immediately to the story of a local family suffering from hepatitis B, even though they had no experience with the disease. Janine served as the first president and remained on the board until 2018.
Paul and Janine funded the Witte Scholars and the Bruce Witte Lecture series at the foundation.
The Witte Scholars program is for young, emerging scientists to work at the foundation’s affiliated research arm, the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute. Anand Mehta, DPhil., and Hai-Tao Guo, Ph.D., were two young scientists who started their careers as Witte Scholars. Today, Dr. Mehta is an endowed professor at the Medical University of South Carolina studying the early detection of liver cancer and Dr. Guo is a tenured professor at the University of Pittsburgh, studying hepatitis B.
The Bruce Witte Lectureship, named in memory of Paul’s son who passed away as a toddler, gathers world-famous scientists studying hepatitis B and liver cancer for seminars at the Foundation and the Blumberg Institute.
This year’s Bruce Witte Lecture will be given on Oct. 14 by Dr. Harvey Alter, Distinguished NIH Investigator Emeritus, and 2020 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the hepatitis C virus (he also helped discover the hepatitis B virus more than 50 years ago).
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
