Dr. Frederick James Bollum

IMPORTANT SERVICE UPDATE--funeral schedule was changed due to family circumstances. Funeral was held Monday, MARCH 13.  Any cards or memorials can be sent to the Mahn Family Funeral Home c/o Fred Bollum Family, PO Box 111, Red Wing, MN 55066 and will be forwarded to the family.  Thank you for your understanding.

Frederick “Fred” Bollum, 95, a biochemist whose principal work was in the study of mammalian DNA replication and enzymes that modify DNA, died peaceably on March 2nd, 2023 in Potomac, Maryland. In recent years he had suffered from strokes and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Bollum, a Potomac resident, was born in 1927 in Ellsworth, Wisconsin, the son of Frederick Edward and Helen (Bucholtz) Bollum. He attended the University of Minnesota, initially as a zoology major, and graduating in 1956 with a doctorate in physiological chemistry.

He also served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict.

He held a U.S. Public Health Service Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, and continued his work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as professor of biochemistry at the University of Kentucky Medical School, and as chair and professor of biochemistry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. During his career he made significant discoveries of mammalian DNA polymerase and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase.

In 1974 Dr. Bollum was the recipient of the K.A. Forster prize, and in 1986 the National Institutes of Health Merit Award. He was a United States Public Health fellow from 1956-1958 and from 1972-1973.

Along with research associate Dr. Lucy Chang, Dr. Bollum founded the biotechnology company, Supertechs Inc. in 1989. This firm specializes in diagnostics targeted at leukemia and apoptosis research, and is still in operation.

Throughout his life, Dr. Bollum was an avid hobbyist with many interests; music (clarinet and guitar), radio controlled plane and boat models, astronomy, sculpture and cabinetry. His favorite retreat was to a second home on the Chesapeake Bay where he could relax and keep an eye on all the wildlife and the heavens using his collection of telescopes and binoculars. He was a generous donor to the University of Minnesota’s Department of Biochemistry with the creation and funding of the Frederick James Bollum Ph.D Endowed Research Fund.

He is survived by long time companion Lucy Chang;  his son Thomas Anton Bollum, and daughters Jane Elizabeth Bollum, Barbara (Bollum) Burke, Susan (Bollum) Lowe, grandchildren Michelle Emily Fallis, Christopher Robert Fallis, Emily Jane Harm, Jordan Scott Harm, Kelsey Lynn Bollum, and Michael Thomas Bollum. He is predeceased by his older sisters, Marcelle Dorthea (Bollum) Straatman and Helen Alberta (Bollum) Fuller.

Services will be held 10:00 a.m. Monday, March 13, 2023 at the Mahn Family Funeral Home, Bodelson-Mahn Chapel with visitation one hour prior to the service. Interment will take place immediately following the service at Oakwood Cemetery in Red Wing, Minnesota. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.mahnfamilyfuneralhome.com.