If 1979 had been a year of transcendental success because Khorana had finally succeeded in creating a synthetic gene that could function within a cell, it followed a year that had brought him great personal sorrow. His younger daughter, Emily Anne, succumbed to leukemia on July 12, 1978, after a protracted illness. She was 23 years old and her mortal remains were interred at Henniker Cemetery in Henniker, New Hampshire, where the Khoranas had bought a cabin.

The family was devastated, though they knew Emily's death was coming. Friends mourned with them across the world. In Liverpool, Gobind's old mentor, Roger Beer found it sadly ironic that Khorana, who had done so much to reveal the secrets of life, had been helpless when cancer attacked his young daughter. He could well have asked: What was the point of all this biological research?

Emily's death dominated 1978, but was not the only tragedy that year. On June 26, 1978, George Kenner, who had had a history of depression, died by suicide. After teaching at Cambridge for a number of years, he had moved to the University of Liverpool in 1957, where he became Heath Harrison Professor of Organic Chemistry and, after 1976, Royal Society Professor. When the Khoranas visited Beer at Liverpool over the years, they had also kept up with George and his wife, Jill. While Kenner had had a superb research career studying protein synthesis, eventually he succumbed to his depression and took his own life in a remote area in the hills of Wales where he loved to hike.

Following Kenner's death, the University of Liverpool Department of Chemistry instituted the George Kenner Prize and Lectures. The first of these lectures was held on October 28, 1980. Todd introduced the lecturer who, appropriately, was Khorana, speaking on the final complete synthesis of a functional gene (“Synthesis in the study of biological function of nucleic acids”). Todd also presented Khorana with an engraved bowl designed by Denis Mann of Caithness Glass, a well-known glass artist (see Figure 8.1). Khorana stayed with the Beers as usual. It must have been a bittersweet reunion: Kenner had been a friend to all of them.