Leon Tadeusz Kremzner

From the January 24, 2000 issue of The Country Chronicle

Canaan, NH–Leon Tadeusz “Lee” Kremzner, 75, died unexpectedly Tuesday January 18, 2000 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

A respected scientist who moved to Canaan in 1983, Mr. Kremzner, at the time of his death, was serving as a selectman.

He was born September 16, 1924, in Wyszkow, Poland, as an American citizen born abroad, and came to the United States in 1930. He attended schools in Newark, NJ and left Newark College of Engineering to serve in the Army during WWII. He was a Corporal in the Anti-Tank Company 406th Infantry Regiment, part of the 102nd Infantry, and served in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Mr. Kremzner received several medals, including the Bronze Star.

He graduated from Seton Hall College in 1949 and received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Rutgers University in 1955. He did postdoctoral work at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

On August 26, 1956 he was married to Louise M. Roik. They lived in several New Jersey communities, including Upper Saddle River, Pennington, Ho-Ho-Kus and Chester. Mr. Kremzner was an associate professor of neurochemistry and a senior research scientist at Columbia University. For more than 30 years, he taught and conducted research on Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and nerve regeneration. He is credited with developing a method for isolating acetylcholinesterase. He published more than 50 papers and held 4 patents. Mr. Kremzner served as an advisor to the U.S. Army Medical Research Laboratories and to the National Science Foundation. He retired in 1986.

Mr. and Mrs. Kremzner moved to Canaan in 1983. They ran the Inn on Canaan Street, which was selected by Yankee Magazine in 1995-96 as one of the best places to stay in New England. Mr. Kremzner was active in town affairs and was elected selectman in 1998. He loved the town and worked many hours to make it a better place.

Mr. Kremzner loved the outdoors and was extremely active. He was usually one of the first to swim at Canaan Street Lake in the spring and one of the last in the fall. He loved to skate, ski and take walks with his dogs, which he adored. He enjoyed spirited conversations with friends and family around the dinner table. He believed that his proudest accomplishment was his family and his greatest joy was bringing up his children.

Survivors include his wife of Canaan; his son, Mark, of Vancouver and ME; a daughter, Madeline Olsen of Post Mills and son, Stuart of Bloomington, IL; son, Raymond of MD, from a previous marriage; two brothers, Stanislaw of Vacaville, CA and Sigmunt of Pawley’s Island, SC; and two grandchildren.

Services were held Saturday at 1:30 pm at the Cardigan Mountain School Chapel. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, 710 West 168th St., New York, NY 10032-9982 or to the Canaan FAST Squad, Canaan, NH 03741. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Rand-Wilson Funeral Home in Hanover.